John Ryan

When I started my high technology career in 1982, we had an unemployment rate of 10%. Doesn’t this sound familiar? It was a brave new time in computing and no one was even sure where it was all going. Doesn’t this also sound familiar? I probably didn’t realize it at the time sinc... (more)

A new web site enabling agencies and the public to review the detailed financial performance of federal  IT investments using dashboards.  The home page offers a quick glance into the overall investment portfolio while also allowing you to go deeper into specific IT investments. ... (more)

It’s time for football in America and we all know that football is the most popular sport in the country. Research shows it’s far more popular than baseball, 43% say it’s their favorite sport vs. 12% for second place baseball. The NFL is a slick marketing juggernaut and college f... (more)

Over the last few weeks, I presented a lesson or two a week for my readers. For your convenience, here are all seven of the martial arts lessons that I believe you can apply to business: Lesson One: Laying a Foundation – Hapkido is a building program that relies on previous steps... (more)

Social Media on Ulitzer I use all of these social media tools and although they haven't put me on my own island in the Caribbean yet, I'm very pleased with the combined results. 1. Twitter – It’s the fastest way to share that you have created something of value. As a bonus, Tweetd... (more)

My original post in late June was based on two weeks of using Ulitzer and Ning.  I've added additional thoughts after two months of use. The obvious point for me is that the sites have two different objectives for the writers.  For Ning, the writer is trying to be involved in a ni... (more)

    This is Lesson No. 7 of a Continuing Series on How Martial Arts Skills can be Applied to Business Keep your energy centered – In Hapkido, one of your main thoughts is to stay centered on your energy. In the word Hapkido itself is the word "ki" which is your vital energy. Y... (more)

Workers who commute or travel find that Netbooks are just much more travel friendly than larger laptops.  For salespeople who want more space in their bag or even marketers who will present using a projector, Netbooks make sense.  The truth is which applications being delivered o... (more)

This is Lesson No. 6 of a Continuing Series on How Martial Arts Skills can be Applied to Business It will take you twenty times to learn this move – New students come into class and see all of the Hapkido techniques on sheets on the wall. The list is intimidating to say the least... (more)

Marketo is a thought leader in the category of marketing automation.  They are a fast-growing organization in what is still a nascent market. If you are involved in marketing or sales execution, this is a good guide to get the benefits out of the nurturing process. You can also v... (more)

Twitter on Ulitzer As more and more people are using Twitter, there is more effort being made by individuals and businesses to leverage Twitter as a business tool. Twitter recently published a Twitter Business Usage Guide.  There are three sections to this guide that include Gett... (more)

Quiet the voices – While in training, I like to sit in a lotus position, close my eyes and drift inward. There is usually some kind of a striking class like Karate being taught before Hapkido and it can get quite loud in there, but no matter. When you learn to go inward, you are ... (more)

Human beings are social creatures who many years ago depended on that socialization for survival. Say what you like about machines, processes and institutions, humans enjoy the company of others. Over the last few decades, we have tried to mitigate that basic need and now oddly e... (more)

More proof that blogging is smart business.  Just make sure that whoever is blogging is a good writer and is committed to being consistent. Otherwise, it will be a waste of time.  You can either have your developers include a blog in your web experience or use free tools like Word... (more)

This is Lesson No. 3 of a Continuing Series on How Martial Arts Skills can be Applied to Business There are no short cuts – a Hapkido master told me this and thank goodness there are people in the world who still believe this. Stop trying to be clever and instead focus on earning... (more)

If you are a Microsoft Dynamics CRM client or you are considering Microsoft Dynamics CRM, this is a good place to start.  From Microsoft: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Visit crm.dynamics.com. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web site is the place to go for information on all things CRM. You’... (more)

This is Lesson No. 4 of a Continuing Series on How Martial Arts Skills can be Applied to Business A million lessons everyday – Everyone you meet, everything that happens to you is a lesson. In Hapkido, every class brings either someone who knows more than you or someone who has t... (more)

Although I think these gadgets are lightweight for any kind of serious user, I can't help but think this feeds Google's overall social strategy that must be drawn up on some war room wall at Google.  I think Google could given us more to save time working with our current social ... (more)

The importance of automating the sales processes and capturing buyer data has perhaps never been more important.  Many organizations are finally waking up to the fact that having thousands of leads isn't as important as doing better with the leads you have.  From Gartner... What... (more)

What category does Wildfire play in – what would an analyst say? We play in 2 categories, we’re in the Social Media Marketing category and we’re also in the promotions space. We've taken promotion formats that have been proven successful and have made them viral and social by tappi... (more)