Doug Wagner, Author at Sunwapta Solutions

11 May 2010

Business Optimization Process

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:55:05-06:00May 11th, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|

I have been spending some time recently looking at how you can improve your business's performance. There are essentially two major categories:

Business optimization (or continuous improvement)
Major innovations (totally changing what you do and/or how you do it)

Major innovation is not always easy, especially for established industries and businesses. And even when you introduce a major innovation that shakes up your industry or leaps you in front of the competition (i.e. creates a blue ocean); there is usually a follow-on phase of business optimization.

One thing common across all types of business improvement, no action = no results. To manifest your vision […]

5 May 2010

Presentation Zen

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:55:12-06:00May 5th, 2010|Categories: Books and Courses, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

A number of years ago, a coworker and I were working on a project in Edmonton. We got hungry and hopped in the rental car to find a place to eat. We had no idea what food we wanted or where in town we needed to go.

So we just started driving. No map allowed. When you approach an intersection, you make a best guess as to which direction you might want to head. This approach started working well for us. As time went on, we would find places where there were amazing specials and we never had to eat the […]

5 May 2010

A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:55:19-06:00May 5th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Marketing|

I never really like how I look in pictures. Well, I found one I can live with and have updated my blog and social media profiles to include it.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I am off the hook for any more posts for some time.

4 May 2010

The Fine Line in Marketing Health

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:55:24-06:00May 4th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

How much is YOUR life worth to you? If you were diagnosed with an untreatable, fatal health problem, how hard would you try to find something on the fringes that might work for you?

If you were suffering from chronic pain, how much would you pay to get rid of that pain?

What if it was a spouse or your children?

Health care is big business whether you are in the US with a more capitalistic approach to health or in Canada with a more social approach. Business is there to provide a product or service and make money doing so.

If you […]

29 Apr 2010

Nearly Skunked

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:55:33-06:00April 29th, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Tuesday night I decided to take the dogs for a walk. I stepped out the door and froze. The smell of skunk was very strong. The dogs were sniffing the air but fortunately didn’t see anything.

After pausing for what seemed like several minutes, but was likely a few seconds, I quietly turned on my flashlight and looked around. Sure enough, there were eyes looking back at me about 50 feet out, beside a bush.

I don’t actually know what the range of a skunk is but I assumed it was less than 50 feet so I took the dogs out along a route that would […]

28 Apr 2010

The 5 Stages of Evolution: People and Computing

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:55:40-06:00April 28th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Technology|

I was thinking about the evolution in computing over the past few years. Computers have been used to make sense of information, find answers, for entertainment and to connect with other people. We used to find someone with perceived expertise in a subject and get advice from them.

Some things change and some things never really change. It turns out it is not really about the evolution of computers so much as it is about the evolution of people using computers.

The 5 Stages of Evolution: People and Computing

Clueless Computing

We all know someone who is just not computer savvy. Maybe you bought […]

23 Apr 2010

Using Social Media for Business

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:55:45-06:00April 23rd, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

Over the past few weeks, I've read a couple of books on how to market your business or product using social media. I am not discounting the power of social media by any stretch, after all, I am blogging.

However, there seems to be an overtone of "using" social media in the books and consulting around this subject. Start a blog, write amazing content, promote yourself and company in LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Follow people who have lots of followers and tag along on their success. Post comments on popular blogs, etc. Get better ranking in Google by getting quality inbound links. You […]

22 Apr 2010

KISS Your Software: Core versus Cool

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:55:51-06:00April 22nd, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Software Development|

In the software development realm we all succumb to this at some point. We lose site of what is core (what absolutely needs to be there) in favour of what would be cool or only used by a few.

What is the essential set of functionality that defines your software? Really?

What would happen if you removed it? What percentage of application users would notice it missing?

When you define the core, you can focus on the core.

Get this right and spend 80% of your effort on this for version 1. Otherwise you will spend 80% of your time on the things […]

14 Apr 2010

New Website – Less is Now, More is Later

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:55:56-06:00April 14th, 2010|Categories: Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales, Software Development, Technology|

The shoemaker's kids finally have new shoes. We've always been so busy doing the technical stuff for our clients, we've been ignoring our own marketing. Well that is changing.

Today we launched version 3 of our corporate website. It is using a Content Management System (CMS) behind the scenes so we can keep the site current.

I was inspired recently by several good books. Essentially, the message was pick a date, set a budget and vary the scope. This avoids it is never good enough syndrome and allows you to ship; on time and on budget.

This also follows the agile principle […]

12 Apr 2010

“They” Are Right

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:55:59-06:00April 12th, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales, Technology|

They are the people who can be used to explain everything or cinch any argument.

"They say you should eat right and exercise."

"They say you should look out for yourself because everyone is out to get you."

"They say you should look out for others, especially those who are less fortunate."

They are not always right. They are just a convenient way to prove a point. The best part is that no further proof is required if you use "they".

"They say we need to refresh our corporate website."

On the last point, THEY are quite right this time.

And it is time to do […]

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About Doug Wagner

The 5 Stages of Evolution: People and Computing

Clueless Computing