Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Guide to Survey Software

http://www.gesis.org/en/services/methods/consultations/data-collection/online-surveys/a-guide-to-survey-software/

As part of our consultation (Who can approach us for help?) we help identify criteria to arrive at a couple of online survey software products suitable to your needs. This page lists resources, criteria, articles and selected software products, both commercial and free software. As an alternative to the software products on this page you may consider hiring a full service provider which is able to take care of sampling, questionnaire programming, data analysis, etc. as well.

Recommended reading: Kaczmirek, L. (2008), Internet Survey Software Tools, in N. Fielding, R. Lee, & G. Blank (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods, London: Sage, pp. 236-254, provides a thorough discussion of valuable software features organized into the phases of conducting an online survey, including set-up, data collection, and reporting. An extra section explains how ethical standards and data protection laws need to be considered in the software architecture. Because of its recommendations for different types of users, the chapter is suitable for both beginners and professionals.

Content
1 Available Software Overviews
2 Criteria for Selecting Products and Reviews
3 Technical Aspects for Programmers
4 Commercial and Non-profit Products
5 Free Software (Open Source)

1 Available Software Overviews for Online Surveys and Web-based Research

2 Criteria for Selecting Products and Reviews

Along with software reviews you will also find sources which describe and elaborate on feasible criteria for the selection of products. Conferences which had discussions about survey software are for example: International Field Director's & Technologies Conference (IFD&TC), General Online Research (GOR), Mensch und Computer (MC), Applied Statistics (AS).

3 Technical Aspects for Programmers
  • Göritz, A. S., & Birnbaum, M. H. (2005). Generic HTML form Processor: a Versatile PHP Script to Save Web-Collected Data into a MySQL Database. Behavior Research Methods, 37: 703-710.
  • Hellbusch, J. E., & Bühler, C. (Hrsg.). (2005). Barrierefreies Webdesign. Praxishandbuch für Webgestaltung und grafische Programmoberflächen. dpunkt.verlag. 
    "Accessible Webdesign" contains the necessary examples and information to design accessible web forms.
  • Fraley, C. (2004). How to Conduct Behavioral Research on the Internet. Guilford Publications.
    Contains exercises in the programming language perl.

4 Commercial and Non-profit Products

The market offers products which are likely to satisfy every need. Many vendors are capable and flexible enough to tailorize or adjust their product to the special requirements of their customers. The products listed here support at least: set-up of the questionnaire, data collection and to some extent data anaysis.

Products which provide entry offers up to 200 euros for a complete survey are marked with an [E]. As pricing is likely to change this should only be seen as a hint. Often, the price is a bad clue for the overall functionality of a product. Especially vendors which are capable to carry out big projects offer many features also in the low price segment. Commonly, the online survey is hosted by the vendor and administered and programmed through a web-interface.

WebSM and ASC offer additional overviews with different approaches to categorization.

Table 1: Software to Conduct Online Surveys

How to use this table: The list is supposed to help identify eligible products. It is neither complete nor can we guarantee its validity. Products should always be compared with the specific demands of a survey project.
Abbreviations: [E]ntry offer available; Low cost licenses for [U]niversities and students available; Questionnaire set-up via[W]eb-interface or [L]ocal software installation; [A]dvanced features available. Also suitable for complex projects (e.g. scripting language, major individual tailorizing is possible).

Firm/Institute Product E/U W/L Advanced Remarks
Amundis 2Ask E/U W     A reporting, price calculation online
Askallo   E/U W   free entry offer, reporting
ClassApps SelectSurveyASP E W   .NET source code in C#, code available, data bases: MS Access, SQL Server, MySQL, needs own server
Globalpark Enterprise Feedback Suite (EFS) E/U W      A a non-commercial version is available under the name 'unipark'.
InstantSurvey E W   reporting
MarketTools Zoomerang U W   free version available with restrictions
NetQuestionnaires   E W      A free student edition in Switzerland
Objectplanet Opinio(tm) U W    
onlineumfragen.com   E/U W    
Paul Marx - Marketing Consulting eQuestionnaire E/U W   lower charges for students and doctoral students
Polliscope   E/U W    
PreyerInformation Technology Echopoll E/U W    
QuestionPro   E/U W   free entry offer, reporting
StellarSurvey   E W   free entry offer, reporting
SurveyMonkey   E W   free entry offer, reporting
Qualtrics   E W    
Voycer   E W   free, the host mentions restrictions in layout, available question types, and other aspects
oFb Team oFb - der onlineFragebogen U W      A free use under special license conditions
CfMC Websurvent   W      A Multimodal, e.g. Web-based CATI. Reporting
IQS-Quant Houselab   W      A card sorting, reaction time experiments, spacial orientation, spacial memory
Ingress keyingress   W      A Multi-mode, create surveys with plain2form-procedure
Webropol     W      A Yearly license with unlimited survey volume. Answers provided by break-offs are not saved.
Bebosoft Mediata Survey E L   program in PHP and MySQL or PostgreSQL, needs own server
ApianSoftware SurveyPro5   L    
Inquisite InquisiteSurvey   L      A  
ISI-GmbH Equip Questionnaire Generator   L   also CAPI
Exavo SurveyStudio     L    
Interrogare IRQuest   L      A coding of open answers, CATI, CAPI
Gravic Inc. Remark Web Survey   L   OCR extratool to import answers on paper questionnaires with a scanner
QuestionMark Perception   L    
Rogator Rogator G3plus   L      A  
VOXCO Voxco Command Center   L      A especially CATI
Snap Surveys Snap Professional          A framework for multi-mode-surveys (CAPI, CATI, PDA, mobile, online)
ConfirmIt ConfirmIt Platform   W      A  
Senecio Software Inc. Askanywhere   W   java
SPSS PASW Data Collection Interviewer Web          A  
Statistic Netherlands Blaise Internet Service (BlaiseIS)          A extra module for their CAI-product, special expertise in blaise-specific script language necessary
5 Free Software (Open Source)

With free software no costs are associated with licensing. Own derivations and further development of the code is allowed. Free access to the program code (open source) is a precondition for this.

Costs emerge mainly from hosting or renting a server on which the software can run and from manual installation and maintenance. Solid knowledge concerning the operating system and the web-server-platform is the basis for using such software. Expertise in the programming language, database administration, patching, HTML and JavaScript are advantageous. Considering the 'total cost of ownership' a (commercial) product in table 1 may be cheaper. It is possible that third-party vendors use free software for their services.

Table 2: Free Software to Conduct Online Surveys

How to use this table: The following list was compiled with care and can guide in identifiying eligible products. However, we cannot guarantee its completeness or validity. Please leave us a note, if you know of other free software products for this list.
Licences: GPL, LGPL, MPL.
Sorting: Active projects with a developing community are listed on the top (green). They are available as stable systems and suitable for beginners. Frozen projects (yellow) have had their last update some time ago or the main developers noted that only few spare time is available for the project. Such projects might be revived or finally discontinued in the future. Discontinued projects (red) often have only one source version online. In addition they might be outdated in terms of technical implementation or are generally not recommendable as a productive survey system.

Firm/Institute Product E/U W/L Advanced Remarks
Amundis 2Ask E/U W     A reporting, price calculation online
Askallo   E/U W   free entry offer, reporting
ClassApps SelectSurveyASP E W   .NET source code in C#, code available, data bases: MS Access, SQL Server, MySQL, needs own server
Globalpark Enterprise Feedback Suite (EFS) E/U W      A a non-commercial version is available under the name 'unipark'.
InstantSurvey E W   reporting
MarketTools Zoomerang U W   free version available with restrictions
NetQuestionnaires   E W      A free student edition in Switzerland
Objectplanet Opinio(tm) U W    
onlineumfragen.com   E/U W    
Paul Marx - Marketing Consulting eQuestionnaire E/U W   lower charges for students and doctoral students
Polliscope   E/U W    
PreyerInformation Technology Echopoll E/U W    
QuestionPro   E/U W   free entry offer, reporting
StellarSurvey   E W   free entry offer, reporting
SurveyMonkey   E W   free entry offer, reporting
Qualtrics   E W    
Voycer   E W   free, the host mentions restrictions in layout, available question types, and other aspects
oFb Team oFb - der onlineFragebogen U W      A free use under special license conditions
CfMC Websurvent   W      A Multimodal, e.g. Web-based CATI. Reporting
IQS-Quant Houselab   W      A card sorting, reaction time experiments, spacial orientation, spacial memory
Ingress keyingress   W      A Multi-mode, create surveys with plain2form-procedure
Webropol     W      A Yearly license with unlimited survey volume. Answers provided by break-offs are not saved.
Bebosoft Mediata Survey E L   program in PHP and MySQL or PostgreSQL, needs own server
ApianSoftware SurveyPro5   L    
Inquisite InquisiteSurvey   L      A  
ISI-GmbH Equip Questionnaire Generator   L   also CAPI
Exavo SurveyStudio     L    
Interrogare IRQuest   L      A coding of open answers, CATI, CAPI
Gravic Inc. Remark Web Survey   L   OCR extratool to import answers on paper questionnaires with a scanner
QuestionMark Perception   L    
Rogator Rogator G3plus   L      A  
VOXCO Voxco Command Center   L      A especially CATI
Snap Surveys Snap Professional          A framework for multi-mode-surveys (CAPI, CATI, PDA, mobile, online)
ConfirmIt ConfirmIt Platform   W      A  
Senecio Software Inc. Askanywhere   W   java
SPSS PASW Data Collection Interviewer Web          A  
Statistic Netherlands Blaise Internet Service (BlaiseIS)          A extra module for their CAI-product, special expertise in blaise-specific script language necessary
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Creating a Culture of Excellence

It means something different for every company, but for all of them the key to success is the same: the person at the top.

By Jason Daley   |   Entrepreneur Magazine - March 2010

Ever since Tom Peters introduced the word excellence into the business world, companies have been madly scrambling after it. His 1982 book, In Search of Excellence, spawned a whole industry of excellence--management gurus and cultural consultants invading the workplace with formulas for total quality control, going from good to great, breaking all the rules, getting things done, busting e-myths and moving cheese.

But in the end, it turns out the quest for excellence is a little like stopping smoking--there are hundreds of plans, but in reality none of them work very well, at least without a strong commitment from the top. According to research by IBM and others, between 60 and 90 percent of organizational change initiatives fall flat. It's no wonder. Making the changes that lead to excellence is not an overnight pursuit--it's a long process that often means rewiring a company's fundamental DNA.

That's something Atlanta audit firm Porter Keadle Moore learned early on. In 1995, PKM was a typical stuffy auditing firm, with dark wood paneling, a command-and-control system and overworked employees. When Phil Moore and his colleagues split up, though, Moore decided to make the new incarnation of PKM very different. "At that point in time, we wanted to have a firm that had a culture that embodied our hearts and minds," he says.

Fifteen years and countless initiatives later, PKM is Atlanta's top accounting firm, with a 98 percent positive rating, 11 percent turnover rate and awards for being one of America's psychologically healthiest workplaces.

How did PKM do it? Its approach to excellence isn't off-the-wall. In fact, PKM has followed fairly conventional strategies to make it to the top. It's just that it has implemented those extremely well, stayed focused and learned that managing people is the key. PKM also had the essential element in place with Moore: The chief motivator of change in an entrepreneur-led company is the leadership.

"The willingness and desire to make personal changes themselves will radiate out in the business," says Peter Bregman, a corporate culture consultant and author of Point B: A Short Guide to Leading a Big Change. "A corporate culture is incredibly strongly linked to a leader's personality."

Change begins with asking what you want your company to do and what your company could be. The greatest skill that PKM has developed is its ability to harness the ideas and wisdom of its employees and apply them to that grand vision. "We've created a continuous feedback culture," says Debbie Sessions, a partner and COO who helped launch a program that trains employees in the art of feedback. "We're getting and giving new ideas on a daily basis."

We took a close look at PKM and at the most current research and thinking on corporate culture. We can't promise instant success. No one can. We can't give you the zeal to make it happen. You have to have that yourself. But we can give you the tools to create your own culture of excellence.

Make a Plan--and Stick With It
Pursuing excellence is unique for each company that reaches for it, but almost all of them have trouble figuring out if they're hitting their goals. Sometimes, even knowing what constitutes excellence can be a stumbling block.

Rick Maurer is an advocate of detailed benchmarking. Before starting a change initiative, some of which span many years, he advises sitting down and deciding what excellence looks like for your company. What does an excellent manufacturing process look like? What is good customer service? As your changes take hold, consult those benchmarks and see if your changes are moving you in the right direction. Here's how:

  • Create a master document. Spell out exactly what excellence means. Be as detailed as possible and set up reasonable timelines and benchmarks.
  • Survey your customers. Studies show long paper questionnaires are often ignored. Instead, pull aside a few customers and personally ask them two or three specific questions.
  • Get outside help. Whether it's a heavy-hitting consultant such as Gallup or McKinsey & Co. or a local management coach, they can help identify problems you can't see yourself.
  • Talk with the neighbors. Find some local businesses you hope to emulate and learn what they're doing right and use them as benchmarks to measure your progress.
  • Survey employees anonymously. One of PKM's secrets is an in-depth biannual employee survey that asks detailed questions. Creating a climate in which employees can express criticism without worry is essential. PKM also holds an NCAA bracket-style competition to get all employees thinking and innovating on one another's ideas. Besides leading to improvements on the technical side of the audit business, the game results in lots of small cost-saving changes, such as closing the offices between Christmas and New Year's.

Motivation
COO Debbie Sessions is in charge of employee engagement, the fine art of keeping the 85 people at PKM motivated and even excited when they come to work each morning. For her, engagement means creating a fun office atmosphere to counter the often stressful and technical workload and to promote a happy work/life balance, strategies that have been shown to increase productivity and employee loyalty.

"There's absolutely a financial benefit to employee engagement," she says. "Clients aren't happy if we have turnover, and it costs twice as much to train new associates every year."

Employers often think money is the key to motivating employees, but research shows it only works in the short term and other things keep employees happy and productive over the long run. "Our notion of recognition tends to be antiquated," says Bob Nelson, an incentive specialist and author of Keeping Up in a Down Economy. "In this new generation, flexibility and time are more important rewards."

Here is what he suggests:

  • Make days off, long lunches or customized work schedules rewards for meeting new goals.
  • Praise is difficult for many managers, but Nelson says acknowledging good work--face-to-face, via e-mail or in a newsletter--lets employees know they're on the right track and creates more loyalty than you think.
  • Office-wide rewards build teams and shake employees out of their ruts--and are usually cheaper than parties or cash bonuses. Think about a spa day or an afternoon baseball game.
  • Reward productivity, not long hours. Encourage employees to get their work done quickly.
  • Promote good health. Setting up a company gym membership or wellness plan, or even providing healthy snacks in the break room, can lead to more alert, engaged employees.
  • Promote a strong work/life balance. At PKM, the top management makes a point to leave the office at 5 p.m. and take time off for personal events.

Productivity
Developing a thoroughly engaged, motivated workforce is the surest route to productivity, but it takes time. So it's a good idea to aim for some quick boosts in the meantime.

The first one is simply stepping back: Micromanagement is a huge problem for entrepreneurs because of their strong personalities and personal stakes. "Entrepreneurs are often worried about revenues," consultant Bregman says. "So they start micromanaging. It can lead to personal conflicts, especially in small companies where the politics are much starker." That makes employees more likely to disengage and possibly even quit--and that's not productive.

You should also:

  • Explain every change. A streamlined workflow might make perfect sense to you, but don't assume your employees will get it. Schedule an in-depth meeting or training each time you alter your business. It will help alleviate fear and resistance.
  • Get people on board. Those new systems will be worthless if employees don't use them. One of PKM's most successful strategies is creating competitions. When the company recently switched from weekly to daily time tracking, it set up a contest: The team with the highest compliance rate after 10 weeks won a fully funded happy hour, and a drawing of top compliers had a $250 cash prize. The result: More than half the firm had 100 percent compliance within 10 weeks.
  • Give them freedom when it comes to the web. Employees who check personal e-mail, watch YouTube or peek at Facebook are almost 10 percent more productive than those whose access is blocked, mainly because the frequent, small breaks help them to regain their concentration.

Gear
Investing money and training in a few key pieces of equipment can help your office stay organized, reduce stress and get more work done. And in most offices, nothing is more key than its server.
A server, or at least a shared hard drive, should be what keeps people connected. Problem is, most people ignore the public space or clutter it with ancient documents.

"Unless there is a mandate from the top down, many employees save documents on their hard drives instead of the server," says Laura Leist, founder of Eliminate Chaos. "When they leave the organization those documents might be lost. Or, while they're still employed, other workers aren't aware that the projects exist." That means a lot of wasted or duplicated effort. Institute a uniform naming and filing system to help the company navigate what is often an under-used repository of information. Then consider:

  • Syncable calendars. They are found in most office software suites or can be used online free through Google. In one company Leist worked with, employees wasted hours every week walking office to office, scheduling meetings.
  • Instant messages. They speed the flow of information.
  • Meeting software. If you have employees in the field or in other cities, you can save travel expenses by using Go To Meeting, Skype or other new, affordable web conferencing software.
  • Paper management. A good document scanner to digitize files costs less than $1,000. If paper filing is a must, schedule regular times to clean out and organize filing.

Environment
Creating a culture in which people can do their best work sometimes means retooling the physical office. Here's what we know about making your headquarters productivity-friendly.

  • Provide quiet spaces. Creative thinkers often need solitude, so be sure there are enclosed offices or temporary spaces available where they can block out distractions.
  • Have informal gathering spots. Employers often see water-cooler chats and break-time conversations as wasted productivity, but they're actually some of the main conduits of office communication and innovation, especially between departments. Make sure there are spaces that encourage interoffice networking.
  • Keep employees comfortable. A controversial 2004 study showed that keeping an office at 77 degrees versus 68 degrees made employees 46 percent more productive. While the science might be questionable, the underlying idea is not. Comfortable employees are more productive.
  • Bring in an ergonomics consultant to help determine what each employee needs. It might be as simple as a better keyboard or adjusting a chair a couple of inches.

Three Steps to Take Now
Rick Maurer, author of the soon-to-be published Beyond the Wall of Resistance: Why 70% of All Changes FailÿFD--and What to Do About It, offers some key advice on engaging your employees in the pursuit of excellence.

  1. Some people will always be suspicious of change. Ignore them. If you put your attention on converting the 5 percent who aren't going along, you're missing opportunities with the other 95 percent.
  2. Employees need the same fire in their bellies as their leader when it comes to change. Hold meetings on implementing your plans and really let employees engage in the discussion. They need to walk out saying, "I contributed something."
  3. Give employees room to create change. They're often busy enough; when extra assignments add stress, they're more likely to fail. An employer needs to ask, "What support do you need to make this project happen? What can we take off your plate to help? What money or access do you need?" The leader needs the guts to say, "Spend 70 percent of your time on this project and let other things slide." Otherwise, change projects don't get done.

Jason Daley is a freelance writer based in Madison, Wis.

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The Secrets of Successful Logos

Six Design Tips for Logos

By Kara Ohngren   |   December 9, 2010

The inspiration for the iconic blue bird that's come to represent San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. didn't come from the company's founders, or even a high-priced marketing firm. It came from the users. Soon after the 2006 launch of the micro-blogging site, people started referring to their individual messages as "tweets."

"The best thing we did was listen to how people were using the site and how they considered the brand," says co-founder Jack Dorsey.

Twitter's logo works well because it is "reflective of the community spirit behind the site," says Matt Mickiewicz, founder of the Melbourne, Australia-based crowdsourcing-design website 99designs Pty Ltd. "It's fantastic."

An effective logo, like Twitter's, should communicate the purpose of the business and the values that the brand represents. "A poor logo doesn't mean a business will fail, and a good logo doesn't mean it will succeed -- it just helps," Mickiewicz says. "Ultimately a good logo is something that people recognize instantly and relate to."

There are any number of ways to devise a logo, but it's essential that the end result is unique and accurately represents the business, says Cono Fusco, creative director at LogoMojo.com, a Deluxe Corp. online services firm.

Here's a look at how three small businesses came up with logos, when they were just starting out, that have become synonymous with their brands.

Twitter's Blue Bird

The original Twitter bird

The original Twitter bird

As the bird references caught on, the Twitter team opted to purchase the "Birdie" graphic from designer Simon Oxley who had uploaded it onto iStockphoto.com, an online stock library of royalty-free images for purchase. The bird has since gone through several iterations.

"We then built [the bird concept] into the marketing, logo and typeface itself," Dorsey says.

Twitter did make one branding mistake: purchasing stock photography. They don't have exclusive copyright ownership of the image, and the original designis still available on iStockphoto for anyone to purchase and use for about $10.

The Digital Chocolate Bar

Digital Chocolate

The current Digital Chocolate logo

People told Trip Hawkins that the logo he created for his mobile gaming company,Digital Chocolate, was too complicated, busy and colorful. Ten million gamers later, Hawkins begs to differ.

The multicolored logo is a candy bar embossed with the words "Digital Chocolate," and radio waves emanate from a bite out of the bar. "It illustrates that we make convenient internet games that have instant gratification, just like eating chocolate," says Hawkins, whose company is backed by $44 million in venture capital. "Our customers are really busy, and we're a bite-sized snack of fun."

The logo helps tell the company's story. What's more, it's colorful, easy to read from a distance and can be converted to black and white or resized without losing its luster, according to Fusco. But because it requires a four-color print job, Fusco says he wouldn't recommend the design to start-ups on a limited budget.

SmugMug's Smuggie

The current SmugMug logo

The current SmugMug logo

Sometimes the best logo ideas happen by whim. Like when Don MacAskill and his father Chris were developing a Mountain View, Calif.-based photo-sharing site, they couldn't decide on a company name. When several friends and family suggested "SmugMug," they worried that the name sounded negative and misleading.

"We didn't want people to think we were selling coffee mugs," MacAskill says.

But they decided SmugMug would work as a temporary name until they found something better. To allay his misgivings, MacAskill opened Adobe's image editing software Photoshop, typed a colon and the capital letter "D." He rotated the image to create a simple smiley face and tacked it on the end of the word SmugMug.

Low-Cost Design Alternatives

Crowdsourcing a logo through an online design-contest site can help keep costs low because business owners can name their own price. Usually, the higher the offer, the more options they'll have to choose from. Another alternative to hiring high-priced design firms are online graphic design companies such as LogoMojo, Logoworks by HP and The Logo Factory Inc. Their teams of professional designers can create multiple logos, typically for $200 to $600, depending on complexity.

"It took me less than 10 minutes to create the logo. I honestly thought it was going to be a throwaway," MacAskill says. But it stuck.

Eight years later, SmugMug has more than 50 employees and hundreds of thousands of customers. The SmugMug smiley face, known as "Smuggie," has developed a following.

"It's a little more polished now, but it's still the warm, friendly, accessible logo that our customers fell in love with," MacAskill says. "Our customers threaten revolt every time we talk about changing it."

Smuggie is an example of what designers call a "napkin" logo -- a concept quickly sketched out by its creator on a napkin during a business dinner or on the back of an envelope in a meeting. "These are created without pressure and are considered just an idea to work with to develop into the voice of the company -- or in this case, the face," Fusco says.

A problem common to logos created by those without design experience is that they try to say too much. Fusco says clients often send sketches, asking his design team to add more colors, funky fonts and too much detail. "In the end it looks too busy and doesn't speak to the target market," he says.

One reason Smuggie works, as good logos often do, is because it can represent the company even when the business name is removed.

As Smuggie's story and the others suggest, logo design doesn't adhere to a strict set of rules. But there are guidelines most designers try to follow. The creative team behind online logo design firm The Logo Factory offers these six tips for creating a company logo:

How to Work with a Logo Designer

Busy or design-challenged business owners often choose to work with a professional logo design firm, rather than go it alone. If you choose this route, consider these tips from Cono Fusco at LogoMojo.com for getting the most from a logo designer:
1. Meet with the design team in person or by phone. Such direct communication is best. E-mail-only contact usually won't cut it.
2. Don't try to be something you're not. Don't let a designer talk you into something you're uncomfortable with.
3. Be sure to get the master files so you can print the logo anywhere.
4. Negotiate a flat rate for alterations.

  • Don't worry about conveying exactly what the company does. A good logo can be adapted to whatever direction the company takes. Think about McDonald's golden arches or the Nike swoosh.
  • Size matters. A logo may be reproduced in a variety of sizes. Consider how the logo will look printed on everything from business cards to the fax header to ballpoint pens.
  • Proper ratios are vital. A logo usually won't be visually pleasing if it's tall and skinny or wide and short. A logo that approximates the proportions of a typical business card is generally more adaptable to working in other artwork. Designers call this the "golden mean."
  • Consider the target market. A logo is meant to appeal to customers and should be created with them in mind.
  • Seek instant impact. You have only a few seconds to grab customers' attention. Make sure your logo stands out in a cluttered marketplace by having something that's unlike your competitors'.
  • Once it's finalized, don't change it. Small occasional tweaks are fine, but once you've developed your logo, it's best to keep it. Brand recognition takes time.
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10 Essential Leadership Models

from Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy

First I would like to thank Dan for providing us an excellent summary of all the key leadership models in such simple understandable language.. Am sharing the same with myself and other readers…

While there have been thousands of books written about leadership, there are a handful of leadership models that have served me well as a leader and leadership development practitioner. These are the tried and true models that have shifted my thinking about leadership and help create teachable leadership moments for others. Mind you, I’m not a scholar, so the models I favor tend to be simple, practical, and I have to had seen evidence that they are effective.
Here are 10 leadership models that I believe any leader or aspiring leader should be familiar with (Kudos to Mind Tools for supplying many of the summaries in the links, and to Vou):
1. Situational Leadership.
Developed by Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey, it’s a timeless classic. If I could only teach one model to a new manager, it might be this one. It’s all about adapting your leadership style to the developmental needs, or “maturity level”, of your employees. It’s easy to understand and can be used on a daily basis. Your only dilemma will be which version to choose: Hersey or Blanchard? I say Blanchard, but that’s because they follow @Great Leadership. (-:
2. Servant Leadership.
A philosophy and practice of leadership developed by Robert K. Greenleaf. The underlying premise here is that it’s less about you as a leader and all about taking care of those around you. It’s a noble and honorable way to lead and conduct your life.
3. Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid.
OK, so it’s really more of a management model, but it’s another timeless classic. Explained by a nice, simple 2x2 grid, it’s all about balancing your concern for people and your concerns for getting things done (tasks). You gotta love those 4x4 grids!
4. Emotional Intelligence.
While Daniel Goleman’s book popularized EQ, his HBR article “What Makes a Leader?” does a great job explaining why the “soft stuff” is so essential to be an effective leader.
5. Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership.
K&P do a nice job breaking leadership down into five practices: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. I’ve always liked the Leadership Practices Inventory 360 degree assessment that supports the model.
6. Jim’s Collin’s Level Five Leadership.
First published in a 2001 Harvard Business Review article, and then in the book, "From Good to Great, Collin’s leadership model describes kind of a hierarchy of leadership capabilities, with level 5 being a mix of humility and will.
7. The Diamond Model of Leadership.
Although not as widely known as Collin’s Level Five model, my colleague Jim Clawson actually wrote the book Level Three Leadership two years earlier than the Collin’s HBR article. Jim introduced the Diamond Model, which describes four elements of leadership: yourself, others, task, and organization.
8. Six Leadership Passages.
Charan, Drotter, and Noel did a nice job explaining six key developmental passages a leader can advance through in thier book The Leadership Pipeline, along with the skills required to be successful for each passage. I actually came up with my own six passages, in which I made a distinction between management and leadership.
9. Authentic Leadership.
I’ve only recently become a fan of Bill George’s work (True North), and it’s made a difference in how I think about leadership and leadership development. Instead of trying to find and copy the prefect set of leadership characteristics, George argues that you’re better off figuring out who you are and what’s important to you, and leading in a way that’s true to yourself.
10. The GROW model.
Widely attributed to Sir John Whittmore (although it’s not certain who really came up with it), GROW stands for goal, reality, obstacles, options, and way, will, or what’s next, depending on which version you use. It’s really more of a coaching model than a leadership model. However, it’s an essential tool for leaders and one of the easiest to understand and effective coaching models I’ve come across.
How about you? What leadership model has served you the best? Please include a link to a summary of the model, and no shameless self-promotions allowed - except for my own. (-:

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Involving Employees in Change

Organizations going through change should involve their workforce as much as possible in the process. Stryker Navigation shows how.

by Marco Nink and Klaus Welte
Source: http://gmj.gallup.com/content/150932/Involving-Employees-Change.aspx 
 
Employee surveys have now become standard in most organizations. Yet too often, the wrong questions are asked and the wrong things are measured. To make employees feel completely involved in the organization, "satisfaction" with the workplace alone is not enough. An employee who is satisfied with his salary or the amount of annual leave is not necessarily, of his own free will, going to lend full support to his employer and his employer's goals. Satisfaction can be connected to passivity -- employees can be satisfied and yet still be indifferent.
There is more value in optimizing the work environment, thereby increasing emotional attachment -- or engagement -- to the organization by rigorously fulfilling employees' core needs and expectations. The stronger the engagement, the more likely it is that the employee will act in the interests of the employer -- and the more engaged employees there are, the more productive the organization will be. It is possible to measure the degree to which these core needs and expectations of the workplace are met.
What to ask and where to start
Building on years of research, Gallup has developed 12 items -- the Q12 -- and employee responses to these items give information about the state of employee engagement, which in turn correlates with organizational performance. It is crucial that the results are discussed at the workgroup level as well as with the leadership and that action plans are put into place and followed through. The results act as a focus point for intense discussion within the team. (See graphic "The Employee Engagement Hierarchy.")

To ensure that the process is sustainable, the survey should be carried out regularly. Also, changes in the survey results over time need to be discussed within the team, and both action planning and follow-through must be monitored. Only when this happens will the employees feel really included and get actively involved in action planning. The results of the employee surveys can also be correlated with key performance indicators (KPIs). By combining these two types of organizational data -- the "soft" employee engagement data with the "hard" KPI data -- we can demonstrate the direct economic benefit of the actions on costs and growth.

The Employee Engagement Hierarchy
Stryker Navigation is an example of how this can be put into practice. As a company, Stryker is a global leader in the manufacturing of navigation systems for computer-assisted surgery. Stryker's machines help doctors and surgeons perform operations more quickly, more safely, and more accurately. Development and production for global markets is done at Stryker's site in Freiburg, Germany.

Decreasing motivation rang alarm bells
When the Freiburg management team registered that the engagement of its employees was decreasing, it set alarm bells ringing, as the company was facing some difficult technical issues that needed to be resolved. It was not going to be possible to produce some important products as quickly and economically as previously thought. This lack of engagement became particularly apparent in the cooperation between teams -- for example, between the Development and Production teams. While the individual departments were performing well in their own range of tasks, they were not prepared to view the manufacture of new products as a complete process that required their collaboration.

Stryker turned to Gallup to measure the employees' engagement and to help the company develop actions for improving the situation. In addition to the Q12 items, questions were asked about the collaboration between teams. The results were analyzed at the project team level and at the department level. The advantage of this approach is that it allows many different opinions on a project to be heard and discourages siloed thinking. The employees involved in a project can then work together to produce a list of actions, which serves to strengthen connections beyond departmental borders.

The most striking results were gathered in a presentation. Using Gallup's database comparisons and benchmarks, Stryker was able to see the areas in which the company was performing at excellence and those in which it was below average. Each team received its own scorecard, and internal benchmarks were used to show the teams how they ranked within their department as well as within the company as a whole.

How employee engagement doubled

The results of the first Stryker Navigation employee engagement survey demonstrated the potential for improvement. With 32% engaged employees, Stryker Navigation Freiburg was considerably better than the total working population of Germany at that time but was below average when compared with other organizations Gallup works with in Germany. (See "A Threat to German Growth" in the "See Also" area on this page.)

The company tries to position employees where they can best use their talents.
Most notably, the employees had rated two fundamental questions particularly low: "I know what is expected of me at work" and "I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right."

So these items became the starting points for action planning and implementation. For example, Stryker concentrated on describing more clearly what was expected of employees on individual teams and projects. The frequency of feedback discussions was also increased. And to promote the idea of project-based working, changes were made to each team's composition, structure, and where team members were seated.

These actions quickly brought about improvements. The percentage of engaged employees doubled to 64% within a year. But the management wanted to embed these changes for the long term. With this in mind, they designed the follow-through process to be highly transparent because it is important that employees see what actions should be achieved and how far they've progressed in that process.

Recipe for success: a transparent follow-through process

Since then, Stryker Navigation has conducted regular monitoring of action plans, which are discussed with the team at monthly meetings. Responsibility for achieving individual points lies not solely with the management but is deliberately shared with the employees. When compiling and implementing action plans, collaboration between technical supervisors and the human resources department is very important. Therefore the company closely links employee engagement tools to additional personal development programs. Stryker, for example, considers selecting and promoting talent to be highly important, so employees should be positioned where they can best use their talents, which is a significant factor for employee engagement.
Employee Engagement and Key Performance Indicators
In Stryker's opinion, the transparency, continuity, and coordination of the individual tools is key to the success of the action plans. The atmosphere in the company has changed for the better. Employees and managers feel that together they can get things moving and make improvements. Since 2004, the percentage of engaged employees has stabilized at an elevated level of 70% and had reached 73% after the survey in 2011. Stryker Navigation Freiburg is thus overall in the top 10% of companies in Gallup's database of German organizations.

Positive effect on KPIs

There has also been a change of mentality as far as collaboration within projects is concerned -- individual teams now see their colleagues from other departments as customers. They want to deliver results to them that they can work with optimally. This speeds up the development of new products for the market.

There are other indicators that confirm that Stryker Navigation has set out on the right path. In the past 10 years, the turnover of products from the Freiburg site has increased tenfold. And the quality of new products has also increased tenfold when measured against the number of repairs or customer complaints. (See graphic "Employee Engagement and Key Performance Indicators.")

Stryker now faces new challenges. It is already clear that the company is set to grow rapidly in the next few years. This also means that teams are redefining themselves and that work routines and responsibilities are changing. In collaboration with Gallup, Stryker Navigation will prepare its employees for this organizational change, with the goal of continuing to gain the workforce's commitment to Stryker and keeping turnover at a low level.
This article originally appeared in Personalwirtschaft in September 2011. Reprinted with permission.

Marco Nink is a Practice Consultant for Gallup.
Klaus Welte is Vice President and Plant Manager of Stryker Navigation in Freiburg, Germany.
The Q12 items are protected by copyright of Gallup, Inc., 1993-1998. All rights reserved.
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How You Change Is the Change!

Interesting perspective on managing lean.. 

Source: http://www.industryweek.com/articles/how_you_change_is_the_change_26124.aspx?ShowAll=1

Lean management is not a change methodology. It is a destination, a desired set of practices and culture. How you get there will determine the outcome.

By Lawrence M. Miller, www.ManagementMeditations.com

There are far more failures than successes as companies attempt to implement lean manufacturing or lean culture. I believe that most of those failures are the result of the absence of sound change management strategies and skills. How you change creates a set of expectations for what will follow. You create a "pull" for adoption of the change, or you struggle to "push" the string of change up hill. 

Most managers and most consultants do not make the distinction between the destination and the method of travel. The destination can be defined as maximizing customer satisfaction, eliminating waste in all its forms, reducing variances or quality problems, speeding cycle times through core processes, and it can be defined as a culture of continuous improvement and empowerment. But knowing the "what" is like looking at a photo of Mr. Universe and saying, "I want to look like that!" That's easy. But, getting there is something else. Most failures are not the result of failing to know what you want to look like. Rather, they are failures in the process of change.

Here are some of the keys to successful lean implementation and culture change from my experience.
 
1. Ownership is 80% of success - The first rule of change management is: People will implement and make successful that for which they feel ownership.

Too often, the very people who are required to implement a change in processes or culture have it imposed upon them and do not feel that they had any say in its creation. This will almost guarantee failure. The worst way to go about change is to hire a high- priced consultant and have him or her study, write a report, make a presentation, and leave the implementation to those who struggle with the day-to-day realities of life.

Habitat for Humanity knows something about managing change. Their program of building homes for the disadvantaged is not merely about putting up structures. It is about building human capacity and human dignity. When they build a home for a family they ask the members of that family to contribute "sweat equity", their own labor to the construction of the home. This has the effect of giving the new owners a feeling of pride in "their home" that they helped to build. The probability of the family caring for and maintaining the home goes up in proportion to their sense of ownership.

Most senior managers have insufficient appreciation for the human capacity within their own people. For many years I have been facilitating internal "design teams" comprised of both first-line employees and managers who are assigned the work of redesigning their work processes and their social system or culture. These are the people who have their feet on the ground and have true knowledge of how things work in the organization. They invite in their customers and listen to their concerns. They map out the current state of the work process and identify all the variances that cause waste in the process. And, they analyze the culture, the sources of motivation and decision processes. Then, they design the future state, an "ideal state" that transforms both the work process and culture.

I can honestly say that after doing approximately 100 redesign projects it has never failed that those who design the future will develop a passionate commitment to their own design and will fight for its implementation and success. There is this commitment because it is literally "their own" design. It does not belong to a consultant or to senior management. These folks will make it work! That is 50% of success.
 
2. Build Competence, Don't be Consultant Dependent.

Gaining ownership leads toward the development of competence in those who will implement the new design. But the building of internal capacity must go beyond that ownership. It must develop the skills of change management and skills and tools of training and developing people to live within a lean organization.

I am not anti-consultant. After all, I are one! However, consultants are very often misused. Consulting firms are all too happy to have you dependent on their consultants, the more the merrier, for a long time. That is, after all, how they make money. But, is that in the best interest of the client?

The longer a client is dependent on a consultant the less likely it is that the consultant is transferring his or her competence to the client organization and building capacity within the client firm. I recently completed an assignment at a Merck manufacturing plant where 71 teams are implementing lean practices in every department and function and at every level of the organization. Everyone is involved. My role was to work with the senior team of the plant and to train and coach 14 internal coaches, both salaried and hourly, who serve as coaches to all of the other teams.  Who learns the most in this scheme? Of course, the internal coaches who have to turn around and train all of the other teams. They now have the capacity to carry on the process indefinitely. As a team of coaches they meet and learn from each other. This internal consulting team can now learn virtually any new practice that comes along and serve as vanguard for implementation. They don't need me anymore.
 
3. You Won't Get It Right the First Time -- Plan for Experimentation and Iteration.

When either Honda or Toyota have designed a new car and is preparing to manufacture that car, and even though they may have the world's best manufacturing engineers, they do not assume it will all go right the first time. An auto assembly plant may produce a thousand cars a day. But, when these companies are beginning production of an entirely new car they close the plant production to zero, install the required new equipment and programs, retrain all the employees on the new car and the new jobs around its production, and then they make ONE car. They watch that car go through the production process. Inevitably, they find things that don't work as planned. They may find machines that need to be re-adjusted or re-programmed. They may find workers who have not been fully trained. They will fix these things and then build another car. It may take months to gradually build up to full production.

Perhaps your managers implementing a major change are smarter than the Honda or Toyota manufacturing engineers, but I doubt it. The idea that we are so smart that we can design something that is complex to work perfectly the first time is pure arrogance, and arrogance is the worst enemy of continuous improvement. It forces managers to try to cover mistakes, inhibits learning and creates waste.

Design the new process and the new human systems as best you can. Then implement those changes with an "attitude of science," a willingness to try things out, then make adjustments and modifications. This attitude will drive out fear, maximize learning and maximize the rate of improvement.
 
4. Partner with Your Customers.

It is not you against the world unless that is how you choose to write the script. I am currently leading a couple of design teams that are redesigning the core work process of a service organization. They have major problems with unhappy customers. The design team invited in the managers of those customers, the very managers who are unhappy with the service they are receiving, and asked them for help. The design team asked the customers what improvements they would like to see. They asked if they knew of any best practices that they should adopt. And they asked the customer if they would help them in their effort to design the ideal service delivery system. It works every time! I have seen this over and over again. If you ask a customer for help in developing a better way to serve them, they always agree to help! Now you have a partner in your customer.

Every interaction with a customer is a sales call. Every interaction either increases or decreases the probability of future business. Asking the customer to co-create a solution to serve them is one of the best sales calls you will ever make. You have created a new partnership, a new co-owner of the house you are building for them. They will help you make it successful.
 
5. Invite In the Whole-System -- Embrace the Complexity.

Every organization is a complex system, an ecology, with a variety of sub-systems (people systems, financial systems, information systems) all interacting with one another to determine the course of the whole. Just like our economy, the human body or the culture of a country, the culture and competitiveness of a company is never the result of one system standing on its own. Yet, we hire a consultant to redesign the work flow. Another to implement teams or a motivation system. While another is redesigning the flow of information and another may be redesigning the structure. It is a prescription for the creation of waste. All of these systems must be aligned to the same principles and goals. They are all interacting and interdependent. If you don't approach major change with an appreciation for this interaction and interdependence, you are programming in failure.

Charter a design team to implement lean principles through the whole system, the core work process of the organization, and the enabling or support systems. If the human resource processes are not designed to enable the work of the core work process, you have reduced the chance of success. If you have not designed the IT/IS systems to provide those who do the real work of service to customers with the information they need, you have again reduced the chance of success.
 
6. Get in the Boat and Row; Stop Standing at the Shore!

Be the change! If you want change in your organization, LEAD! Lead doesn't mean writing encouraging memos. Leading is not simply deciding to go, or approving a budget. Leading is leading, being out front, doing what you want others to do. Be the model!

Twenty years ago Nevius Curtis was the chairman of Delmarva Power and Light. He wanted to transform his organization into a fully empowered, high performance organization. In my first meeting with him I told him that if he really wanted to succeed, he needed to make his team "Team No. 1." He needed to have his team go through the same training, do the same things he desired of every other team in the organization. He signed up and he signed up his team. In a few years Delmarva became recognized as a model for quality management and empowerment. That effort has sustained to this day. It worked because the leader provided true leadership. He didn't stand on the shore and yell "Row" or criticize the efforts of others. He provided a model.

If you want to create genuine and lasting change you will get in the boat and pull on the oars, and you will soon find that you have an army of rowers all pulling behind you, and in the same direction!
 
Lawrence M. Miller has been doing organizational change consulting for 35 years, beginning with his work creating a free economy in prisons. He has worked with Honda, Shell Oil, and dozens of other corporations. He is the author of nine books, most recently Lean Culture -- The Leader's Guide. His website and blog is www.ManagementMeditations.com.
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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The Challenge of the Average Employee


This an interesting post on how to manage the majority of our workforce... the work horse..

posted at http://blogs.hbr.org/tjan/2011/10/the-challenge-of-the-average-e.html by Anthony K. Tjan

CEO, Managing Partner and Founder of the venture capital firm Cue Ball and vice chairman of the advisory firm Parthenon.



Most businesses have a normal distribution of talent — a limited number, say top 10 percent, of high potential, rock star performers, a bottom decile of underperformers, and a thick middle of 80 percent of folks who get the day-to-day stuff done. In well-managed businesses, there are clear feedback mechanisms to ensure that the bottom of the talent pack gets managed out efficiently and objectively. While at GE, Jack Welch popularized the notion that it was good to fire the "bottom 10" of his managers every year. On the other end of the spectrum, the better companies manage the top-end of their talent pool, providing mentors to groom this group of next-generation of leaders and compensating them differentially in recognition of their superior performance.


The challenge lies in productively managing talent's fat middle. What is the right people strategy for the average employee — the stalwart who is performing well enough, but is not necessarily a standout? Here are a few of the challenges with the middle base of talent:

  • Almost by definition, they often get lost in the mix, lacking appropriate guidance and management attention. This creates an issue of not understanding who holds real potential to move up the talent curve with the right nurturing, versus those who have limited upward mobility, versus those who should not be at the company.
  • They can be a drag on those who truly are the best. While not everyone can be above average, the more mediocre talent you have in a business, the more likely it is to have a negative effect on those who can really make a difference. This creates retention and motivation issues for your higher performers. There will always be a distribution, even if it is a forced curve, of talent potential and capability in a business. But the goal should be to raise the overall average of the entire pool, and avoid letting it get pulled down.
  • In a similar vein, average talent can harm a firm's talent recruitment potential since those who are average tend to be more threatened by bringing in better people. The adage of "A's" attracting "A's" and "B's" attracting "C's" holds true.
So what should business builders do to better manage their talent base — especially in this middle area? Two simple ideas can help:
  • First, the best practice of conducting regular and specific performance feedback is critical. It is equally important to make sure that the person doing the review is capable and respected. Senior people who are responsible for managing the middle pool of talent should also be managed on their own ability to see, sift, cultivate, and retain the very best of that pool. How you grow and mentor organizational talent should be an evaluation criterion for senior managers' performance. Mentees and direct reports feel differently when they know their own managers are being evaluated (with real implications for good or bad performance) on their ability to effectively manage, mentor, and cultivate talent.
  • Second, at regular intervals of a person's career, there should be not just "performance reviews" but also what I call a "Fit Test Point." Too many times we see someone who can do the job, but if we are truly honest know that in the long-run they will be stuck in the middle of the organization. My sense is that companies spend more time discussing performance than they do "fit." Performance reviews are biased towards looking out for the best interests of a company — as long as someone is doing their job they have a place. A "Fit Test Point" is a tool to carefully consider the best interests of an employee. Is this person in product development really better served finding a position as an industry or market researcher, or is that analyst who can clearly make the next two rungs of the management track better served making a switch in her career now given the opportunity cost of time? We all know situations where instincts and experience alerted us that a job was not the best fit for someone, yet we let the person continue because they filled a short-term need or because we lacked the courage to have the honest "Fit Test" conversation. Consider key inflection points of one's career advancement and have the parallel conversation of performance and fit reviews.
Trying to serve everyone equally does not do anyone a service, but catering only to the top of the talent pool or overemphasizing the middle or bottom also does not work. An explicit strategy for managing each tier of talent needs to be in place. The public education system has shown that if we just settle, accept, and teach to the middle that is a formula for failure. As business leaders we should see how we can realize the full potential of each employee and help those who are not right for the business find other jobs where they can be more productive and happier.
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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Free tools for consultants

As independent consultant we are always on the lookout of tools that help us to service our clients better... this post helps in answering some (10 tools) of my needs ... hope yours too..

Source: http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/guestopinions/blog/free-tools-for-consultants/?cs=46574 by Ken Hardin, Clarity Answers  

Dia > The Dia diagram editor (current version, 0.97.1) is a GPL, v2 is very similar to Microsoft's standard Visio tool set. Dia supports layering, some advanced drawing methods such as Beziergon point manipulation, and AntiAliasing when you really want your output to shine. More importantly, it includes a menu of more than 30 conventional icon sets, and exports to a wide range of open and proprietary formats, including Visio XML and the LaTeX doc preparation system. Free, unlimited use.

PDF-XChange Viewer > Suggesting a free alternative to an already free product (Adobe's Reader X) may seem like a stretch, but PDF-XChange Viewer from Tracker Software is so feature-rich that Ken scores brownie points by recommending it to folks. You can actually create visible type inside a PDF with PDF-XChange Viewer, which makes filling out business docs a snap. There are also embedded screen grab tools, a slew of drawing tools (including one for "thought bubbles"), opacity controls, and a tabbed view for multiple docs. It even has built-in zip compression for sending PDFs via email. Tracker Software uses the freeware to upsell to a pro version (you still can't extract or combine files) and its development competitors to Acrobat, so you will see some menus for non-available functionality. Still, PDF-XChange Viewer is just great free software.

Express Invoice > Depending on the complexity of your business, a simple invoicing solution may be all you need to track billables without worrying about payroll or inventory. NCH Software offers a free version of its Express Invoice package for small shops with five or fewer employees (be sure to use the "Get it Free" link on the left of this page). The free version of Express Invoice is not as graphical as many of its competitors, but I've found it easy to create a simple database of customers, quotes and billable items, complete with presumptive tax rates. Minimal invoice customization is available, mostly in the form of logo insertion, and there's even a simple Web-based access to a backup of your account info.

GanttProject
There are a ton of free spreadsheet-based Gantt chart tools out there, but for Ken’s money, if the project is complex enough to merit a Gantt chart to begin with, he wants the data to be in a database, not a spreadsheet. The best free tool he has found for this joyous task is GanttProject, a GPL 2.0 freeware project. You can import resources from standard contacts, assign hard dependencies between tasks, and toggle views between Gantt and the friendlier PERT model. You can post the project to a Web server account, and most importantly, you can export to the MS Project format or CSV. A handy set of tutorials at the project's Web page can walk new users through the basics of Gantting out a project. Free, unlimited use.

Email & Calender
Recommending software from the Mozilla foundation is not exactly a bold move, but with the addition of the Lightning calendaring add-on (now in beta 1.0), Mozilla's Thunderbird 3.1 email client is now officially the best one Ken has ever used. Lightning integrates the retired Sunbird calendaring applet closely with Thunderbird, adding an Events and Tasks menu and a handy calendar sidebar to the intuitive tab-based Mozilla interface. Attachments, recurrence, event-level privacy for shared calendars – it's all there. The only drawback to Thunderbird now is that it does not play seamlessly with Microsoft’s messaging systems, but then again, what does? Ken just copies himself when using a client's Web-based Outlook account – inelegant, but it works.  Free, unlimited use.

Inkscape
Ken has found that a picture is often worth at least several hundred words, and the best free tool he has found for doing mock-ups is Inkscape, an incredibly sophisticated open source vector drawing tool – so sophisticated, in fact, that you can actually buy a user's guide for it. The comparable proprietary tool is Adobe's Illustrator, but the interface most reminds Ken of the late, great FreeHand. On the most rudimentary level, you can combine simple shapes and join text to paths or shapes to spice up your PowerPoint presentations. The tool goes a lot deeper, supporting cloning of linked objects, glyphs, and of course a slew of embellishments and filters. It can import and export virtually every format (including Illustrator and Corel DRAW), and if you ever need to do a flowchart, it has a neat "connectors" function to create persistent binds as you shuffle your label boxes. It's actually way more drawing power than the typical consultant needs. Free, unlimited use.

Antivirus
Microsoft – yes, Microsoft – actually gives away a real-time AV solution that, by most accounts, is quite viable. And it's already in version 2.0.657.0. Of course, since Microsoft's operating system is constantly under attack, most folks might say it's about time Redmond protected its own turbulent ecosystem. All the expected features – real-time updates, removable drive scanning, process exclusion – are there, and Security Essentials also can be set to check for anomalous patterns. The one knock on Security Essentials tends to be resource consumption; the malware agent runs at about 65,000K on Ken’s Windows 7 laptop, but he has seen no real lags in overall system performance.
Free, unlimited use.

Screen Capture
Little things mean a lot sometimes, and DuckCapture from DuckLink Software succeeds where so many screen grabbers fail – it can catch scrolling Web pages in any browser you may be using. (Ken’s guess is that it's because it requires Microsoft Visual C++ 2010, but so be it.) The interface is very simple – captures queue up in a preview window where you can annotate them and even snap a second image for composite before saving your grab. There is a paid version of DuckCapture, but unless you want to extend it with your own scripts, there's no need – the free version is quite robust. Free version with no upsell, unlimited use.

Backup
FBackup Even in the era of "the cloud," backing up your important data to a local source (i.e., a cheap USB 2.0 hard drive) is always a good idea. Ken really likes FBackup from Softland, now in version 4.5. You can set regular backups to either zip files or true mirrors locally or on a network resource. (Actually backing up a network resource, or posting your backup remotely via FTP, requires an upgrade to the paid version.) Managing multiple backup jobs for specific tasks is a snap, and there are handy tutorials about setting up jobs for common applications, such as Outlook. Really, there's nothing to complain about with Fbackup. Free, unlimited use.

HTML Editing & Site Manager
Ken first came across Trellian WebPage when he was looking for a handy tool to do some very basic HTML content editing inside a page that was loaded with scripts. Trellian became his editor of choice because it is stable – other "free" editors tended to crash. A lot. In addition to its stability, WebPage has a built-in script editor, absolute positioning of HTML elements, embedded image editing tools, and a generally usable layout reminiscent of the Windows "ribbon" interface. And of course a built-in FTP client, etc. Trellian uses its freeware editor to upsell to SEO and keyword marketing services, and some buttons led to a sales pitch, but all the functionality you need is there for simple page/site management. 
Free with some upsell, unlimited use.

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/guestopinions/blog/free-tools-for-consultants/?cs=46574
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Interesting Twist - Idolize Bill Gates, Not Steve Jobs

Read this interesting post in HBR blog.. when every website, blog and news mag is talking about Steve.. this is a refreshing post

Apple is undoubtedly the gold standard of today's tech world. In fact, it's probably the gold standard of American industry at the moment. Its innovative design, user interface, and ecosystem make it a titan in any category it enters. And it's clear that Steve Jobs was the reason Apple rose to its current heights from the brink of bankruptcy. In the wake of his death, HBR espoused his greatness — something I've done as well. And he was great. Steve Jobs has likely been our generation's most important leader in the world of business. But Steve Jobs is not the most important leader from the world of business. While Jobs should be who MBAs and industrial designers try to emulate, I'm not sure he's who we should idolize. That respect should be bestowed on someone we talk less and less about, Bill Gates.


Both Jobs and Gates had immeasurable impacts on the world. Apple ushered in the era of personal computing in many respects. Microsoft's platform made it possible for a generation of computer scientists to learn and flourish. Apple seems to have perfected the art of delivering fantastic consumer products. Microsoft has worked diligently to make the enterprise more and more efficient. Regardless of which camp you fall in today, it's impossible to deny each corporation's contribution. Jobs and Gates each deeply respected each other's contributions.

But at the end of his life, Steve Jobs worried about Apple, Inc. Walter Isaacson quoted the wizard of Cupertino saying, "Hewlett and Packard built a great company, and they thought they had left it in good hands. But now it's being dismembered and destroyed. I hope I've left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple." At the end of his life, Jobs saw his legacy as Apple.


Bill Gates stepped away from Microsoft in 2006 and, despite the company's growing troubles in the face of the mobile disruption, has devoted his genius to solving the world's biggest problems, despite the fact that solving those problems doesn't create profit or fame.* Gates committed his talents to eliminating diseases, increasing development standards, and generally fighting inequality.


Since 1994, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation amassed an endowment of over $31 billion in funds to fight the world's most difficult issues. But it hasn't merely accumulated funds, the foundation has already given away over $25 billion. Those aren't trivial numbers. In seventeen years, the foundation has raised and given away more than one-tenth of Apple's extraordinary market capitalization. While the developed world takes things like clean water, basic healthcare, and the availability of food for granted — there are billions of human beings that don't have such fundamental resources.


Gandhi famously said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." I don't doubt that, in recent years, both Gates and Jobs did just that. Jobs made the world more beautiful and the billion of us with resources loved him for it. Gates is making the world ideal, and the billions of us with no voice will be forever impacted.


Yesterday, I read a note Gates wrote to members of the Harvard community. It speaks for itself:


I hope you will reflect on what you've done with your talent and energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you work to address the world's deepest inequities, on how well you treat people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.


Those are not the words of a leader of business. Those are the words of a leader of people. Those are the words of an idol.


As much as I love Apple, Inc, I would happily give up my iPhone to put food on the plates of starving children. Steve Jobs turned his company into a decade long leader in the truly new space of mobile computing. Bill Gates decided to eliminate malaria. Who do you think we should be putting up on a pedestal for our children to emulate?


*While you might disagree with that claim, a quick reference of Google trends shows that since leaving Microsoft, Bill Gates star has dramatically faded — and in 2010 was eclipsed by that of Jobs.
 
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/idolize_bill_gates_not_steve_j.html
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