I have been helping a friend with some issues pertaining to “an employee exodus” (4 out 15 people are leaving in a month). Surprisingly, there is a bunch of writing on this topic.

Fred Wilson has written about it twice recently. In the first post, he writes about getting employees back to shipping and coding. He also mentions that most of these companies are mission driven.

He even writes, “And if you don’t work in a company that is mission driven, or if you don’t connect with your company’s mission, then I would encourage you to quit and join a company that you are inspired to work for and then throw yourself at that work.” Well, in sales without belief in product or company, it is a challenge to sell. In many positions, it is probably somewhat similar: if you think the company sucks, it is hard to do your best work. You want employees who believe in the company.

“Take Care Of Your Employees And They’ll Take Care Of Your Business,” Says Richard Branson.

In the second post, “The number one cause of employee unhappiness and unwanted departures is “I don’t understand where we are going.” That is a failure of leadership on the CEO’s part.

The CEO’s main job is to set culture, vision, mission. Next it is to sell. But as Hugh MacLeod points out,
All campaigns are ultimately internal. In other words, selling to your employees comes first. Selling them on vision, mission, culture. (I won’t quote Simon Sinek here because I have done it too often.)

People leave for a number of reasons:

• # 1 People leave Managers, not jobs. 
• Bored or unchallenged.
• Co-workers
• No Recognition.
• Not Meaningfully Contributing (not meaningful work).
• Lack of or a Change in Culture or Vision.

This was a great article about why people leave and how to change that culture. Worth the read!

“BMG is striking back after two American internet ISPs tried to get a declaratory judgment for their cases against BMG. The companies in question are RCN and Windstream.” See story HERE.

“Windstream is urging a New York federal court to rule that ISPs are not liable for the file trading behavior of their broadband subscribers. Late last year a Virginia federal jury ruled that ISPs could be held liable for the file sharing behavior of customers on their network, contrary to the belief that ISPs are protected from liability via safe harbor provisions embedded in the DMCA,” according to DSLR, which is closely following the story as is TorrentFreak.

“In fact, Cox Communications was ordered to pay $25 million for not doing enough about piracy on its network, despite being one of the more aggressive ISPs on this front over the years.”

BMG has anti-piracy partner named Rightscorp. There other groups chasing copyright infringements including ASCAP and MPAA.

I wonder how much of this is due to DPI, the content examination that they do and the data gathering, etc.

“BMG is striking back after two American internet ISPs tried to get a declaratory judgment for their cases against BMG. The companies in question are RCN and Windstream.” See story HERE.

“Windstream is urging a New York federal court to rule that ISPs are not liable for the file trading behavior of their broadband subscribers. Late last year a Virginia federal jury ruled that ISPs could be held liable for the file sharing behavior of customers on their network, contrary to the belief that ISPs are protected from liability via safe harbor provisions embedded in the DMCA,” according to DSLR, which is closely following the story as is TorrentFreak.

“In fact, Cox Communications was ordered to pay $25 million for not doing enough about piracy on its network, despite being one of the more aggressive ISPs on this front over the years.”

BMG has anti-piracy partner named Rightscorp. There other groups chasing copyright infringements including ASCAP and MPAA.

I wonder how much of this is due to DPI, the content examination that they do and the data gathering, etc.

Many of you customize everything for clients. I have often explained that it doesn’t scale, but Seth Godin explains it here. There is nothing wrong with customizing but there is an actual cost associated with doing so — and with on-going support for that custom solution.

Why do they ask if you want fries with that? “Elmer Wheeler was a sales trainer nearly a century ago. He got hired by a chain of drugstores to increase sales at the soda fountain. In those days, a meal might consist of just an ice cream soda for a nickel. But for an extra penny or two, you could add a raw egg (protein!). Obviously, if more people added an egg, profits would go up. Wheeler taught the jerks (isn’t that a great job title?) to ask anyone who ordered a soda, “One egg or two?” Sales of the egg add-on skyrocketed.” From who else but Seth Godin.

If 10% of the people buy the add-on, your ARPU increases, revenue goes up and profits should increase (unless you sell underwater).