As Published In February 2005

Editor's Note

It's Not All or Nothing
By Margaret Terry Lindquist

In this magazine, and in the two or three you have stacked below it, are several articles that may (hopefully) make you say "I should try that—that might be good for me or my business." Conferences like Oracle OpenWorld (Oracle's combined technology and business show, held last December in San Francisco) can cause the same kind of excitement—you see peers who are succeeding where you're struggling, experts touting the next big thing, new software features and capabilities that seem like exactly what your business needs. The danger, of course, is "to-do overload," that feeling you get when what you might do gets added to what you must do and creates a list that is not invigorating—it's just scary. So what needs to happen to translate your to-do list into reality?

In the next several issues of Profit, we're going to focus on how you can reassess and, if necessary, realign your efforts so that you can accomplish what you need to do to succeed. We'll look at corporate personality tests that can help you define who you are. We'll define the information-driven enterprise and talk about the different methodologies that have been devised to move enterprises from concept to action. We'll talk about what needs to happen to create adaptive, agile enterprises and how you can deal with the information overload that is never going to go away.

But right now, try a tip from noted productivity guru David Allen (www.davidco.com). Look at the conference materials you picked up at OpenWorld or some other event, for your business or for any other part of your life. Find the place in your notebook where you jotted down a cool idea or contact and told yourself that you really had to follow up and do it. Then ask yourself, what's the first step you need to take to make that a reality? Often, you'll find it's an e-mail to set up a meeting, a phone call to get more information, or some other action that probably will take you less than 30 seconds to accomplish. Do that one thing, and after you do it, figure out what the next step is going to be, and when you're going to be able to take that step. In the end, every project, every job, has a first step, and taking that first step is the only way you'll be able to move from reactive to active in any aspect of your job.

In other news, I'm excited to note that last December's OpenWorld registration reached 25,000—breaking all previous conference records for Oracle. This is noteworthy, because it was the first combined OpenWorld, where both technology and applications topics were presented to an energetic and receptive audience. The combination of OracleWorld and AppsWorld was a resounding success and reflective of the fact that companies want an integrated message, not disparate silos of information. We hope to see you at next year's Oracle OpenWorld, September 18-22, in San Francisco.