Business Insight Zone

If you’re a Hoover’s subscriber, you already know how useful the information and tools on our site are. Well, brace yourselves, because a whole new Hoover’s site is coming your way in 2010.

What’s new, you ask? Here’s a sampler:

• More than 60 million company records (up from 30 million)
• More than 75 million people records (up from 36 million)
• New data elements, including D&B’s proprietary Prescreen Score, latitude/longitude information, and more
• Interactive graphs and charts
• Interactive Competitor Landscape
• A redesigned Build A List tool that makes complex searches easier than ever — and allows you to search for e-mail contacts with the right add-ons
• And on and on and ON.

We’re very excited about these changes, which will be rolling out during Q1 of 2010. In fact, we’re so excited that we’re giving you a sneak preview of the new site right now. Just click on this link, log in with your current information, and take a good look at what’s already been implemented in the redesign.

Keep in mind that what you see now is only part of the whole picture — we’ll continue to update the Preview Site with new functionality in the coming weeks and months.

While you’re there, you can give us feedback on the new tools and layout so that we can make it even better when it debuts to the whole Hoover’s audience in 2010. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, but we’d love to know what you think about it.

What are you waiting for? If you’re a Hoover’s subscriber, check out the Hoover’s Preview Site now!

Pick anything important you’re working on and think about the question in the title. I’ll wait . . .

Okay, you’ve thought about it? Now answer these questions for yourself:

• Is your timeframe tied to your sales cycle? To your budgeting process? To your personal level of patience? To some arbitrary (meaningless) standard? Or what?
• How quickly do you expect a return from your efforts? How much of a return do you expect soon? How much in the long run? (And what do you mean by “soon” and “in the long run”? Does your team agree on these definitions?)
• How quickly are you asking yourself to act? To make decisions? Is this faster or slower than what you expect from peers / direct reports / bosses / vendors / clients / prospects?

Why am I asking all of these questions? Because experience tells me that mismatched timetables are a major source of business friction, misplaced urgency, and fouled-up projects.

What do you think?

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Photo by Alexander Boden, used under a CC-Share Alike license.

A lot of businesspeople treat December like the off-season. They’re tired — especially after a loooooooong and wearing year like 2009. They want to book as much business as they can before the year closes, sure, but in many cases they primarily want to stay warm, avoid trouble, and limp along toward a bit of time off with their families. Their motto could be, “We’ll hit it hard in the new year.”

Believe me when I tell you that I’m sympathetic to this view. I indulged myself in a real mental vacation around Thanksgiving. I had been traveling for work and juggling lots of tasks in the office (it’s not all ivory-tower thought leadership here at Hoover’s Galactic HQ) while keeping up with my family duties and a steady workout schedule. Spending a week out of the office, including a few days at my folks’ place, was a real breather for me.

But then reality set in: the work doesn’t stop. You know this, I know this, but it’s worth repeating — and in language that puts a fine point on it:

The needs of your customers and your business don’t stop.
Not for the holidays — not for anything.

If you ease up too much on your efforts in December, not only will you fail to serve your customers and your business, you’ll also lose precious momentum that you’ll need when 2010 rolls around.

And if all of that doesn’t give you motivation enough to keep grinding ahead, refer back to the sentence that started this post: “A lot of businesspeople treat December like the off-season.”

Some of those people may be your competitors. Just because they’re sleeping this month doesn’t mean you should. In fact, if they are sleeping, December is the perfect time to steal a march on them.

I’ll leave you with an analogy: the football great Jerry Rice was famous for his durability — he was catching touchdown passes when he was 40 — which arose from his intense offseason fitness regimen. That regimen started the very next day after his team finished its season. So if the 49ers won the Superbowl on Sunday . . . Rice was out on the training field, in the cold and wet of a San Francisco winter, by 7 a.m. on Monday.

That’s how Hall of Famers are built, in business as in anything else.

So, please, enjoy time with your family during the holiday season. Watch some TV, eat some good food, and vegetate enough to recharge your batteries. I know I will.

But use your secret weapon — your focus during December — as a way to elevate your game, for 2009, 2010, and beyond.

What do YOU do in December to build your business?

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Photo by Josh Evnin, used under a CC-Share Alike license.

Twitter seems to be having growing pains again. That’s what I surmise, at least, after the couple of times today I’ve seen this . . .

. . . instead of the screen I wanted.

Here’s the trouble: it’s a lie. The outages are intermittent, and they’re not matched by the usual warning messages on the Twitter homepage to tell users about planned interruptions in service.

Maybe it’s just a goof, and the Twitter folks meant to throw up the familiar “Something Is Technically Wrong” or the famous Failwhale. Maybe they’re embarrassed that they’ve been having too many Failwhale moments lately. Maybe . . . well, I don’t know — what would be a good reason for putting up this message when it’s not true?

Bigger picture (because Twitter itself is trivial, in the grand scheme of business):

What sort of fibs do YOU see around you in the business world?

Thank you all.

Remember when I asked you to vote for my submission in the SXSW Interactive Panel Picker? Well . . . we’re in! You can check out the official listing here:

The Next Round of 2010 Interactive Programming Is Here!

The only teeny-tiny drawback is that we’ve been approved for the “Core Conversation” format, which means:

• smaller venue,
• no A/V setup,
• only two presenters, and
• in general, more seminar-esque.

Now, that’s a good thing, in that my favorite part of any presentation I do comes in the interaction with the audience. Plus, it motivates me to fill the room to overflowing, then run a session that blows everybody’s doors off so that we can do a full-bore panel for SXSW 2011. (Hey, if it’s a long-term world-domination plan, might as well start now, huh?)

Anyway . . . woo-hoo!

Will I see YOU at SXSW 2010?

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Related:

• Panel description: Hitting Bombs: Better Social Business Through Sports Metaphors

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