Newsletter Insert May 2017

Drew’s Young Gun Automation Insert

Drew Baryenbruch

Toddlers May Just Be Amazing Businessmen

Unless you have made a point to avoid all humans under 3 feet tall, you have likely witnessed some wee character in the full throes of the terrible twos. This is the time when self-expression and opinion blossoms in young humans. In laymen’s terms they learn to say no.

Driven by mainly emotional responses, toddlers drop nos early and often. If you have a playful attitude you have no doubt worked a toddler into a rhythm of NO responses and then goaded them into a NO on a really nice offering. “HAHAHA – Fine, in that case I’ll eat your popsicle.”

The point to take away is that a toddler is a customer with a predisposed attitude towards rejection. Unless the offer is extremely attractive they will turn it down.

They Might be on to Something:
This predisposition towards rejections is something that can be powerful in business. Warren Buffet has been quoted saying, “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

There is some amount of opportunity in almost everything but there is a limited amount of time and resources to chase opportunity. This is universally true in business and life. The easiest most effective way to find success among all opportunity is to focus on the home run opportunities. You simply reject the rest.

People get hung up looking at high risk high reward opportunities. It’s also really hard for most people to say no when there is a benefit involved. The patient person willing to turn down lesser opportunity is always ready with energy and resources to pounce on the low risk high value opportunities.

Toddlers Don’t Bother with Empathy:
It’s not always our inability to judge opportunity that makes no so hard to say. Many of us are programmed to be nice. Like a break up that starts with, “I love you, it’s not you it’s me.” Many people have strong negative emotional reactions to rejecting others. We are empathetic and feel like rejection needs to be apologized for and rationalized.

Toddlers don’t have this issue. If lil Betty offers lil Billy a lick of her lollie, Billy’s answer will be dictated by his own agenda. When he says NO Betty will cry over the rejection but Billy will happily go about his day playing in the sand. Toddlers do not have strongly developed empathy for others.

You need to get comfortable rejecting others. Rejection is not a mean act but it’s not pleasant. Out of fairness to all parties involved rejection should be firm and swift. Like pulling off a band-aid. Don’t get caught in half promises meant to soften the blow or let the rejection be muddled with weak intent.

This Lesson is a Hard One to Follow for Young Adults:
No is especially hard when we are early in our careers. We have new responsibilities and are often desperate for any opportunity. Let’s face it, no is not option you can mix with desperation. If you need to pay the bills, feed and clothe yourself, make a quota, or prove yourself, no is not a good tool. Never will be. Yes is attraction. No is detraction and that isn’t an option until you have found some level of success.No as a path to further successes is only an option for those who have previously found a certain level of success.

That’s a fact. Some would define that as a privilege of the wealthy. I don’t know what good that definition does. You can be upset by that fact or you can put your head down and work though unpleasant yes opportunities until you find a level of success that allows you to say no. To each their own.

The Final Case for Embracing your Inner Toddler:
Even if you are not personally in a position to say no, most of us work in companies that have found some level of success. That means we have to look at the businesses opportunity through a different lens.

As we evaluate projects, go to close deals, or get to advocate for new developments, it’s important to add a dose of toddler to your internal evaluation process. While you are no doubt eager to make an impression, waiting for the right opportunity and saying no to the wrong opportunities is a very valuable habit to learn.

Learning all the signals to truly define what the right opportunities are is the experience one learns over an entire career in a given field. There is no single answer.

The big take away is start all evaluation with a more critical eye. Let your pessimistic inner toddler start all negotiations with a big NO on the table. That forces you to craft a very persuasive argument for any opportunity to get a yes.

After this battle with your inner toddler, don’t forget to reward him or her with a juice box.

 

 

Information Opportunity!

Beeond is having an OPC UA Adoption Webinar.

“The 5 Step Process for OPC UA Deployment & Certification”

June 14, 10 AM EST

Learn how to speed OPC UA deployments 

They also have three OPC UA Developer Trainings scheduled. In the 2 ½ day course you will learn how to develop OPC UA certifiable products faster and at a lower cost.

 

March Survey Results:

We wanted to use the March survey to gauge how much our readers are actually using Enterprise and cloud technologies in their real world applications.

Behind the Numbers:
IoT and Cloud Computing:The big shift to the big data, enterprise analytics and cloud computing is clearly not happening overnight. 61% of readers have control systems that do not integrate with the enterprise systems, and 78% are not considering using cloud based solutions.

In the next 5-10 years, those attitudes may shift as PCs and the cloud stop being bad words on the factory floor. But we also have to consider that a lot of the value proposition these technologies offer is attractive but would not lead to ROI on many mid size and small applications.

Creepy Characters: It appears Santa Clause is still a wholesome chap.

Surprisingly, leprechauns earned 20% of the “other” votes. Leaving me to ask What mall is offering pics with a leprechaun?

The runner up for 20.51% of others was my favorite response – relatives!

Do you currently integrate your controls systems with your companies office systems?

  • Yes – 38.46%
  • No – 61.54%

If you do integrate your controls and office systems what do you use?

  • Package from PLC Vendor – 16.67%
  • OPC based solution – 15.38%
  • Custom software – 11.54%
  • N/A – 53.85%
  • Other – 2.56%

When you move data to your office systems what is the ideal end destination?

  • Microsoft Excel – 33.33%
  • Microsoft IIS – 1.28%
  • Microsoft SQL – 26.92%
  • Apache – 0%
  • MySQL – 3.85%
  • N/A – 30.77%
  • Other – 3.85%

Are you using or considering a cloud based solution?

  • Yes – 20.51%
  • No – 79.49%

If yes, which cloud package?

  • Microsoft Azure – 20.51%
  • Amazon Web Services – 11.54%
  • Oracle Cloud – 7.96%
  • IBM Bluemix – 1.28%
  • Other – 58.97%

What is the creepiest holiday character to have your picture taken with?

  • The Easter Bunny – 38.46%
  • Santa Claus – 8.97%
  • This makes me think of clowns – 32.05%
  • Other – 20.51%