Sound the trumpets, as I wish to blow my own horn a little bit and pass along a few mentions I have received in the past few weeks in the Chicago media.

Newcity is a weekly print magazine with a great Web site covering additional aspects of the Windy City. Reporter Ella Christoph interviewed me about likemind Chicago, the monthly coffee meetup I co-host, as well as others who attend. It’s a great article highlighting this unique, morning gathering of tech, creative and agency folks.

Chicago Now is a blog powered by the Chicago Tribune, and reporter Lira Luis wrote about co-working and OfficePort CHI, the office space my Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC inhabits most days and a few nights and weekends as well. Where I was not interviewed for the article, a picture of me hard at work is featured.

Thanks for the coverage, and if you are a reporter covering business or technology, I am more than glad to talk to you about an upcoming article!

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Announcements • Business • (1) Comments • Permalink

Sunscreen – check. Sand shoes – check. Desire to check email while on the beach – check!

I’m off to southern California for the Nokia E73 Mode beach party to be held on Sunset Beach in Huntington Beach, CA. The folks from the word-of-mouth marketing team of Nokia, WOMWorld/Nokia, have invited me and others from around the country, as well as a number of folks from the LA area, to participate in this unique event, which you can read more about here.

While we take advantage of the sun and beach, we’ll be trying out the new Nokia E73 Mode mobile device, which is available at T-Mobile in the US. It appears to me to be similar to my E72 device, and I will find out first-hand for sure this weekend.

If you’re so inclined, you can follow along on Twitter, and we’ll be will be using the hashtag #e73mode. I’ll also be checking out the camera and may do some video streaming, though my main focus will be on how the E73 can fit into my work life. Seriously!

Thanks again to the folks from WOMWorld/Nokia for inviting me out to this great event. And for the sake of full disclosure, or more like to keep the FTC from coming after me, you can read about my relationship with Nokia.

Editor's Note: I updated several links which have changed since this was first posted. (8/24/2020)

---

This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

---

Did you enjoy this? Subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS/XML feed or Read by Email

Diversions • Mobile Technology • Thrive • (4) Comments • Permalink

Coming off the successful launch of the Spartan Charters Web site last week, my Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC is proud to announce the launch of the redesigned Web site for Chicago artist Augustus V. M. “Gus” Higginson.

The Web site, at www.AugustusHigginson.com, is a showcase for his work and his career. The artwork section features a gallery of his most recent works as well as some of his past works. As an architectural historian, many of his works pay tribute to great buildings, including The Rookery in Chicago and the Chicago Cultural Center. His works are large-scale, and the site features detailed photos of his works as well as the entire pieces.

Once again, Dunkirk collaborated with Visible Logic, Inc. and Emily Brackett for this project. Emily’s design not only serves as a great backdrop for Gus’ artwork but also captures the essence of the artist as well. Behind the scenes of the Web site is powered by ExpresionEngine, the great content management system which we at Dunkirk have been working with for years for many of our clients. This provides the ability for editing of all content on the Web site and provides an infrastructure for managing search engine optimization. Integrated in the home page is Gus’ Twitter stream, which you can follow and see photos of his current and past works in process.

On a personal note, it was a fun project, especially working with a local client. Most of my clients are not local, though despite this they progress very well, and many times I have met the client after the Web site was completed! It was great to sit at the table with Gus during each phase of the project.

Whether you have an appreciation for architecture, history, or simply want to see a unique perspective on some great places, check out the new Web site for Augustus V. M. “Gus” Higginson.

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Announcements • Thrive • Web Design • Web Development • (1) Comments • Permalink

Even if there was such a thing as a silver bullet for the success of a business, it would still need to be properly fired. This would require a silver gun and people who could fire the gun accurately to the exact target, whatever that target is, of course. As ideal as that would be, it doesn’t exist and I takes work to get your business to where you want it.

Thinking about where your business is and where you want it to be is the idea behind the book Predictable Success by Les McKeown. I was given a copy to read by the author. In it, the reader is taken through 7 stages of the lifecycle of a business as identified by McKeown with “predictable success” being at the top of the curve, ideally where your business should be. All of McKeown’s 7 states are: Early Struggle, Fun, Whitewater, Predictable Success, Treadmill, The Big Rut and Death Rattle.

As I read Predictable Success, I had many flashbacks to all of the firms I have worked for, and of course my own Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC. In addition to this trip down memory lane, my takeaways from the book are reflective of my experiences, and are:

It’s important to know where your business is - Whether you are joining a business or have been in one, knowing which state the business is in is important to your decision-making there. For management, knowing the state can influence decisions to improve the business. For employees, it can influence your decision to stay or leave a job.

The wrong people can hurt a business - Unfortunately I have seen this one too much personally, where key people in a firm get to a level where many people believe they are irreplaceable and position themselves as such. This can occur to the point where management will work around them to solve problems in the company, even if those people are the real problem.

Some people cannot solve their business’ problems themselves - From small to large, there are some who lead or run a business who don’t have it in to truly do what is needed to correct the problems in their business. Why? There are many reasons, from not realizing there is a problem to being mired in the day-to-day work of the business to pull themselves out to see and do what’s needed to not having the capital they need (whether people and/or money) to make it happen. I’m not trying to be a downer, only realistic. One thing this book does well is outline steps to get to predictable success – so if you have some outline of a plan, it will help you determine if you have what it takes to make things happen, or seek help to do so.

I enjoyed reading Predictable Success. It is written in a no-nonsense, down to business manner and it is, as I said previously, easy to relate to the business stages based on my previous experience, and probably would be the same for you as well. I rate Predictable Success up with The E-Myth Revisited as a guide for businesses who are in a funk, and recommend it to any business owner, even if everthing is going great for them, or so they may think!

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Book Take-Aways • Business • Thrive • (0) Comments • Permalink

It is with a heavy heart that I write about Father Joseph McGlone, a retired Catholic priest from the Boston area, who passed away earlier this year. I just found about this news by chance when I was performing some Web searches. Allow me to take a diversion from my usual writing to remember a great man and leader.

Fr. Joe, as he was known to everyone, was the pastor of Corpus Christi Church in the village of Auburndale in Newton, Massachusetts. He was there for over 30 years, which is rare for a priest. I was fortunate to have been a member of Corpus Christi when I lived in the Boston area and was honored to have had him marry me and my lovely wife several years ago.

Fr. Joe had a unique appeal; unlike many priests this good Catholic boy had known over the years. He was very real and down to earth. He welcomed you into his church and made you feel at home. He prayed for the issues that many other priests would jam down your throat! As a result, Fr. Joe made Corpus Christi a truly welcoming church, and it certainly wasn’t a chore to go to his church every week. This is not to say Fr. Joe was not assertive or a leader. Even when he used his great sense of humor, he was making a point. There was a period of time I had not been regularly going to church. When I did finally start going back, one week I brought my family with me and he made sure I knew I hadn’t been there and how much I missed and how much I was missed. He jokingly let me had it, all the while welcoming me back.

As the sex abuse scandal was exposed in the Archdiocese of Boston, it took its toll on everyone, including Fr. Joe. When the Archdiocese announced that churches would be closed, he pointed this out one week in his sermon that church expenses weren’t being met my offerings and this was not a good sign for Corpus Christi. This must have been tough for him to say as he never asked for money. But the next week, offerings nearly doubled and maintained that level. I also remember asking Fr. Joe how he was doing throughout the scandal, especially as many of those priests were in surrounding towns. His response was, “I am a woodcutter.” When I asked him to explain, he said if anyone asked him what he did for a living, he would say he is a woodcutter and not a priest. That was on par with his style.

At the time of the almost heartless church closings taking place in the Archdiocese of Boston, Fr. Joe was asked to retire, to which he refused. Everyone was ecstatic he stood his ground! Here was a new archbishop coming in from out of town and wanting what was right about the church to leave? A few years later, after I had moved form the Boston area and Corpus Christi had merged with another church, he was asked again to retire and did. Though I cannot speak directly to the circumstances after I was away, I did hear he remained active in the church close to his hometown where he was a member after retirement, and I am sure they were fortunate to have him.

Right before I moved to Chicago, I lectured one last time at Corpus Christi and Fr. Joe was the presiding priest at the mass. At its conclusion he surprised me by announcing to the congregation that both my wife and I were leaving for a city where he had once studied once in his career at Loyola University. His thoughts were touching as he recalled our wedding and wished us well. That was one of the last times I saw Fr. Joe and a great memory of a great man, along with the many others I have of him from over the years.

Rest in peace, Fr. Joe.

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Announcements • Diversions • (2) Comments • Permalink