My No Axxxxxe Rule

We all have our filters. Employees we love but who are drama kings/queens and cause more trouble than they are worth. Customers we weed out because they are unprofitable. Suppliers which are habitually late with deliveries or get orders wrong.

As part of my summer cleaning, I have been evaluating sources and topics for my blogs. Last month, I posted on my findings on sources for innovation blogs. Continuing on, I have been reviewing companies and products which grace my blogs. It is a very diverse group. No single company is the focus of more than 10% of my 5,000 Deal Architect and New Florence blogs and 800 recent book pages. At least a thousand show up only on one post or page.

It’s even more interesting if I look at this from the lens of how much time I spend on  these companies – researching them, going to their events, talking with their customers, discussing them with the Enterprise Irregulars, on Twitter etc. From that lens, some  of them are enormous time sinks for the blog or book content they provide. They over promise in their marketing and under deliver over and over, year after year. Or they have rabid fans on social media or Wall Street I seem to waste time arguing with. Worse, they take these fans as proof they are doing something right.

I am not going to name names. But I will write less about them. I will waste less time at  their  events. I will avoid debates about them.

They are my version of “drama queens”. Don’t worry – I am sure you will continue to hear plenty about them from their fans. And from me, you will see that gained time invested in more companies that deserve far more attention.