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PowerCircles is a virtual meeting of non-competitive peers that share an understanding of the technology marketplace and are dedicated to solving the issues facing their businesses.  Join us as we learn about the launching of PowerCircles.

PowerCircles Launches

PowerCircles officially launched during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. With a focus on technology businesses this was a great time to begin the journey of helping CEOs focus on their business.

For years CEOs have had available to them the very powerful CEO peer group process. Whether participating with Vistage, Renaissance, CEO Focus, TAB, EO or the myriad other local organizations the return on investment has been phenomenal.

But these groups all have one major shortcoming, and that is that none of them address the problems and issues of companies in the same industry. There is great value in a diversity of experience, opinion and background, but no one can really understand the unique business issues faced by participants in a common market space.

PowerCircles was designed from the ground up to address this core issue. By applying technology to the problem, tech CEOs can meet virtually with non-competitive peers that intimately understand their business.

If you know someone that could benefit from the power and impact of PowerCircles please let them know about the program.

It’s almost cliché, but it is entirely true that “just because you’re in business for yourself, doesn’t mean you have to be in business by yourself”.

Lessons in Leadership

I recently had the opportunity to hear Pat Williams, the VP of the Orlando Magic speak on the subject of leadership. With decades of experience in professional sports he is uniquely positioned to understand this topic. Here were his thoughts-

1 Leadership is always about the future - Stay focused, zoned in and above all finish
Leaders have the ability to “see and experience” the future and the perseverance and focus to get there.

2 Communicate the Vision - Optimism trumps pessimism; be prepared to talk about it
Leaders need to be optimistic and be able to communicate with clarity and passion.

3 Have People Skills - Great leaders love people. Business is all about people and people are what make things happen. Goals are achieved only when people believe in the mission and are prepared to follow the leader.

4 Character Matters more than Strategy - Honesty, Integrity and Humility
Strategies change, but character cannot be compromised. We need look no further than the political arena to see the effects of deficiencies in character.

5 Competency - Leaders are made not born. Keys are lifelong learning, lifelong teaching and constant reading.  Read a book a week at a minimum and you will be well ahead of the pack.

6 Boldness - Make decisions! That's what leaders do. It has been said that a bad decision is far better than no decision. Decisions get things moving, allowing for mid-course corrections. A ship that is not moving cannot maneuver, but one that is moving can make direction changes quickly. 

7 Servant's Heart - what separates good leaders from great leaders is a servant orientation. Servant leaders get far better results than domineering and autocratic ones.

Overall, great thoughts to help guide leaders in business… and sports… and life. If you have the chance to catch Pat Williams live, it is definitely worth the effort.

The Business Opportunities of the new Microsoft Partner Network

Many of the PowerCircle community are Microsoft Partners. At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) held in New Orleans during the second week of June, Microsoft announced a new version of the longstanding program.  Now officially called the Microsoft Partner Network, the new program eliminates the previous 3-tiered Gold, Certified and Registered levels designations.

The new levels, designated as Advanced, Standard, Subscriber, and Communities and QuickStarts will attempt to more accurately align Partners with both Microsoft and customers according to their strengths, skills, capabilities and desired level of engagement with Microsoft.   The new program begins with Partner program renewals in October 2009, but Partners will have until October 2010 to migrate into one of the new designations.

The new program encompasses some current programs, which did not fit into the current designations and competencies, and consolidates some specializations into competencies.

For some partners these new levels demand additional requirements in order to retain their current level of engagement with Microsoft.  For others, it creates an opportunity to reinvent their businesses.  In our opinion, this poses a unique chance to engage in a forward-looking business model better suited to the market opportunities of the future and the new economy.

As Bill Gates once said at a small breakfast meeting, “Obsolete your current business by reinventing your strengths and customer facing benefits proactively, before some competitor does it for you and to you”.

In future articles, we will discuss what we see as the opportunities and hot spots for the near and midterm periods.

In the meanwhile, consider your current relationship with Microsoft and with current and future customers.  Ask yourself what you would like to be different , spend some time thinking about how you might get there, and engage in conversations with trusted advisors to help validate or challenge your thinking.