“I have no desire to scale up or get bigger. My desire is to produce the best food in the world. And if in doing so, more people come to our corner and want stuff, then heaven help me figure out how to meet the need without compromising the integrity.

As soon as you grasp for that growth, you’re gonna view your customer differently, you’re gonna view your product differently, you’re gonna view your business differently. Everything that is the most important – you’re going to view that differently.”

Full BBC story with interviews.

Super hero Seth Godin posted this today. He argues that the lifetime value of a customer is worth a lot. Time and money is often better spent mind-blowing current customers than it is looking for the next customer.

I recently had this dilemma. We had a real shot at winning new work with a new customer. We knew what to do and our approach was a terrific option for them. They had a deadline for a proposal response that was not flexible.

Meanwhile, we had a customer that required significant attention to get a system live. They had invested a lot of money with us and we needed a final push that would consume significant time.

We couldn't attack both. If we chased the first, we would likely fall short on the second. The first deal was potentially worth over three times more in direct revenue than the second. We chose the second. Yes, because it was the right thing to do. Yes, because it was a wise investment.

Do it well
or don't do it
because if you can't
you won't for long.

Sometimes not compromising is really hard. Sometimes compromise is for sissies.

I hope it's as good as the video.

Most recent TED video is here

Download the PDF poster.

If you don't know what Google Wave is, you can start here: http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

I think the technology is really important. Here's 5 reasons why:

1. We want to use collaboration tools without having to launch into the tool. The aggregation of e-mail, IM, discussion threads and apps is useful and inevitable. Why? Time, convenience, usability and power of the exchange.

2. The e-mail pattern is tired and unnecessary. We don't need a send/receive. We want the flexibility to opt-out of conversations that don't need us. Sometimes we need a history of change rather than being forced to make sense of a flat thread.

3. This is more than a messaging revolution. It's application mashup. And the applications can actually be assembled or removed as needed.

Some early samples if Wave and app integration:
Collaborative BPM with SAP Gravity:
Customer Service with Salesforce.com:
Project Collab with Thoughtworks Mingle: http://studios.thoughtworks.com/mingle-agile-project-management/mingle-and-google-wave
Credits: http://mashable.com/2009/09/05/google-wave-ideas/

4. I'm betting that we'll see integration with 3rd party collaboration and document management tools like SharePoint. This would allow people to work where they live and bridge the gap between grass roots technology adoption and corporate objectives (supporting governance and exploiting corporate knowledge).

5. Twitter is used for collaboration or communication around a topic. So are wikis. Blogs are as well. But Twitter is not a rich experience, wikis are impersonal and can be difficult to moderate and blogs don't have enough realtime collaborative power. The potential of participating in solving tough problems around topical areas is exciting.

extra stuff:

Other current bots and utilities:
I have three invites left. E-mail me.

For a long time, governments believed they had all the power. Big walls. Big military. Big guns.
For a long time, churches believed they had all the power. Big walls. Big authority. Big hats.
For a long time, corporations believed they had all the power. Big walls. Big lawyers. Big money.

Not anymore.

The world flipped. Did you notice?

We now believe we have all the power. We are the center. You are the center.