Monthly Archives
About Marvin
Marvin has been with the company for 30 years. As a sales representative and then a sales manager, Marvin worked directly with our customers, helping them to create new approaches in how they stored and accessed what was important to them. He has been a Certified Records Manager for over 15 years and became Improve Group’s President and CEO in 2000. Marvin is dedicated to helping our customers understand the value of what good processes can do to improve their business.
Why Good Leaders Will Randomly Just Walk The Halls
It sits 200 hundred feet underground working each day to keep me healthy and happy, yet I haven’t thought much about this subterranean miracle since we dropped it in a hole 28 years ago. What is it? My well pump and after almost three decades, it finally gave up this week.
Why Aligning Your Data And Metric Is Critical
There is an old story about a certain Italian harbor that ships could only reach through a very narrow channel surrounded by rocks and shoals. Because of the difficulty in navigating, many ships were lost over the years. To help guide ships safely, the Harbor Master erected three poles, each with a light on top. The ship captain would then align the ship in such a way that the three lights appeared as one. As long as the lights merged into one, the captain could be sure that he was within the channel. But if two or three lights were visible, the ship wasn’t aligned and in danger of hitting the rocks lining the passageway. This principal of alignment is critical to business success as well….
Why Counting Your Inventory Is Killing Your Bottom Line
Counting inventory is a lot like programming your VCR; difficult, confusing and so last century. For you younger readers, a VCR was a big box one connected to the television that played movies from smaller boxes filled with cellophane….
How Your Cell Phone Is Hurting Your Information Management
There is a shoe box on a shelf in our home with old photos of my wife’s family. What makes these pictures so fascinating is that they were taken in the early 1900’s. The poses and backgrounds are nothing like we see in today’s photos. Back then taking a picture was an event. You had to plan it, prepare for it and usually get help from someone with a camera to take it. That must be why my grandmother always referred to a photo op as getting your picture “made”. It’s as if she thought a person went out to the workshop and nailed it together or something. How things have changed….
How Big Data Can Kill Good Decisions
Could Big Data make us all dolts? Big Data is the Information Technology (IT) term for a collection of data so large or moving so fast that common databases can’t process it. Sort of like your inbox after a week’s vacation. Our capacity to collect information and disperse it is unprecedented. The problem is that most of this information is unstructured, residing in social media posts, videos, survey results, emails, financial reports etc.
Why Just Hitting “Agree” On That User Agreement Can Actually Hurt You
Could there be a single person on the globe who has actually read their Facebook, cloud computing, iTunes or MS Word user agreement? Even though we all click “Agree” when presented with a new user agreement dialog box, few if any, have any idea what it says. For all we know we’ve agreed to run the bases at the next Yankees game wearing a Mark Zuckerberg mask. I mean, if I were Bill Gates, every Windows customer would be agreeing to wash my car every day for a year.
6 Ways To Handle Stress Over Your Project’s Budget
I love to grocery shop when I’m hungry. The whole process is much more compelling when I’m working hard to satisfy a very real, felt need. Now, granted, it’s not the wisest way to shop, in so far as staying on budget , but you have to admit it is much more fun. Shopping on an empty stomach changes the role of the grocery list. The list loses some of its power to guide decisions, and just becomes the starting point for the hunt. Grocery aisles are filled with items to satisfy cravings that the list ignores. When the goal is “stop hunger pains”, lists are very inconvenient.
Are You In Danger of Being Under Caffeinated?
Well there is help! Two doctors at Penn State have developed an iPhone app called “Caffeine Zone” that tracks the amount of caffeine your body is storing to ensure you are optimally buzzed.
What Is the Spanish Word For “I wish I had been home”?
1,799 lucky residents of the 1,800 people who live in Sodeto, Spain recently hit the lottery. Imagine the party in Sodeto when the announcement was made. Each resident received between $130,000 and half million dollars. Everyone except Costis Mistotakis.
That Million Dollar Smile Brought To You By Claude Hopkins
It’s a little known fact that prior to marketing genius Claude Hopkins’ Pepsodent campaign few Americans brushed their teeth. No wonder they called it the depression.
Disconnect the Ding
Science has recently proven something most guys have known all along. If you want to choose the best gift for your wife or girlfriend always opt for something bright and shiny. Flat black or camo usually doesn’t get it done.
I Still Think Email is Better than Pot
A recent British study, commissioned by Hewlett Packard, found that workers distracted by email suffered a greater loss in IQ than users of marijuana. This got me thinking about the differences between email and pot, and really, there are many differences. For instance, who has ever eaten an entire box of Oreos because of email distraction?
Why Make the Bed, You’re Just Going to Mess It Up Again
We have a bed making ritual at our house. The ritual is we make the bed every day. I say we, but I really should say my wife does, and she makes a mean bed.
Friends Don’t Let Friends Text and Drive
Do you ever wonder, late at night, looking into the headlights of an approaching car, if the driver has been drinking? We all know the dangers of drinking and driving, but how many are aware that texting or emailing is actually more dangerous? No, I’m not recommending you trade your Blackberry for a Bud Light.
As long as you can get a waffle, things must not be too bad
What do waffles and hurricanes have in common? To get the answer just ask Craig Fugate, Administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA’s job is to determine the severity of a disaster and deploy the appropriate resources to meet the needs of the affected communities.
Vital Signs
I just bought a used RV with all the comforts of home. In fact, it has a few features I don’t even have at home. One of the most fascinating is a green monitoring panel on the dashboard that gives constant readings of vital RV systems while you drive.
Plan Early, Plan Often
Real Madrid just signed a 7-year old soccer phenom named Leonel Angel Coira to their development team. Seems Leo has made a name for himself as a soccer prodigy. After seeing him perform in tryouts, Real Madrid inked the deal because it was rumored that another team was looking at him.
Never Stalk a Lawyer
Seems Apple is in trouble again for tracking iPhone users. You have probably seen in the press that the Apple iPhone tracks the movement of its users and stores the data. Apple claims they don’t really use the information, and that it is anonymous, so your privacy is intact.
I’ve never been that worried about Apple cyber stalking me. In fact, I feel a little sorry for the poor guy at Apple who has to track me as I rush from the gym to the coffee shop to the market and back again all day. Not a very compelling schedule.
It’s the Friendly Ones You Have to Watch Out For!
I spent a few wonderful days in an unnamed town in the southwest a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful rock formations, awesome hiking and biking trails and some of the friendliest people you’d ever hope to meet. That’s how I learned an important lesson about the friendly ones.
Take My Information…….Please!
Everyone is worried about identity theft these days. That is, everyone except Giles Sequeira. You can have all the information you want about Giles, as long as you’re willing to pay for it.
Giles is among a growing number of people who have learned that there is money in letting their information go.
Access Can Mean Everything
Imagine a week without brewed coffee. Nothing but instant, and to make matters worse, no cream, just milk. Tough duty? You betcha. I just spent a grueling week in a small community outside Sucre, Bolivia with access to only instant coffee. Isn’t Latin America known for its coffee? Shouldn’t Juan Cortez be coming by with his sacks of freshly grown “mountain beans?” Apparently Juan was not Bolivian.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
In his blog, Dan Airley (http://danariely.com) recently wrote of a conversation he had with his local locksmith. Apparently the locksmith is a victim of his own success. When he was a newbie locksmith it took him much longer to open a lock, and often he would break the lock in the process. Most customers were patient with him realizing he was a new locksmith and still learning his trade.
You Can Pay Me Now OR…
Nothing says “oops” like a group of firefighters watching your house burn down. Gene and Paulette Cranick’s house in South Fulton, Tennessee caught fire a few weeks ago; and when the fire department responded they left the hoses and axes on the truck and just watched it burn.
You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me!
The motorcycle gang, Hells Angels, has filed a law suit. And who are they suing? Gucci the fashion house. Let that sink in…the Hells Angels are suing fashionistas.
How do you Keep a Piraha Busy?
Ask him how many fingers you are holding up. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal made the point that language affects the way we think. Of note is the language spoken by the Piraha, a small tribe living on the banks of the Amazon.
When Doctors and Farmers Come Together
There has been a lot of talk recently about the state of healthcare in our country. Proposals, counter proposals, legislation and protests. Seems the French must have had a similar problem in the middle ages. Apparently they just let the farmers and doctors work it out.
Bananas and Tax Returns
I don’t know about you, but from my perspective bananas have a shelf life, a short one in fact. To be edible a banana has to be white all over, and not too mushy. This was a constant issue of disagreement between my mother and I growing up. According to my mom, as long as it’s still shaped like a banana color is not an issue, besides, the more mushy the easier to chew right? You wouldn’t believe the age of some of the bananas we ate on our cocoa puffs at my house. It’s OK though, my therapist says with a little more work I’ll get over it.
If Socrates Were in Charge We’d All Be Listening to Our Emails
It seems that Socrates was a bit of a technophobe. Back in the day, as technology was moving at the speed of an ox cart, Socrates became very concerned about the impact of the latest breakthrough in communications, writing. His worry was that relying on written texts, rather than the oral tradition would “…create forgetfulness in the learners souls…they will trust to the external written characters and not remember themselves.”
