Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
On Sunday, the Titans will take the field against the Miami Dolphins ... with a wide receiver named Randy Moss.
I haven't updated this blog in a while, but this deserves an update.
The Titans, known for being overly conservative across the board with both play-calling and personnel moves, have pulled the trigger on the boldest acquisition the organization has ever made.
Randy Moss will free up Chris Johnson significantly, as he will demand double-coverage on almost every single play. CJ2K won't have to contend with unblocked defenders nearly as much and should be able to start breaking longer runs (like he did last year) once the Titans establish Moss as a weapon.
The Titans were a Super Bowl team already without Randy Moss. With him? I'm excited just to watch them play.
I haven't updated this blog in a while, but this deserves an update.
The Titans, known for being overly conservative across the board with both play-calling and personnel moves, have pulled the trigger on the boldest acquisition the organization has ever made.
Randy Moss will free up Chris Johnson significantly, as he will demand double-coverage on almost every single play. CJ2K won't have to contend with unblocked defenders nearly as much and should be able to start breaking longer runs (like he did last year) once the Titans establish Moss as a weapon.
The Titans were a Super Bowl team already without Randy Moss. With him? I'm excited just to watch them play.
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Haven't posted here in a while!
The Score is doing well - we've expanded the company into two distinct business units, one handling retail operations and one handling conventions/special event business we've pioneered. Not going to go into specifics but the company is in position to have a great rest of the year as we continue to make strides.
If you're reading this and haven't been by the store, you should. I won't be there but at least leave contact info with whoever is there so I can get back in touch with you. Or better yet, if you're not local to Nashville, feel free to order your video games through either our online store or just by calling The Score of Cool Springs directly and having us direct-mail them to you.
There's no reason to think we won't be opening another location next year. So we've got a lot to be thankful for.
I've personally learned a lot since starting this business. Too much to even begin to write. Starting and running a business, and then managing growth, isn't easy or for the faint of heart.
I'll have to come back and try to update this blog again before the end of the year. To those who have reached out and supported The Score as a business, obviously I am very grateful. If you haven't checked us out yet, what are you waiting for?
I'm sure I'll be back here with some kind of year-end update after Christmas. Until then...
The Score is doing well - we've expanded the company into two distinct business units, one handling retail operations and one handling conventions/special event business we've pioneered. Not going to go into specifics but the company is in position to have a great rest of the year as we continue to make strides.
If you're reading this and haven't been by the store, you should. I won't be there but at least leave contact info with whoever is there so I can get back in touch with you. Or better yet, if you're not local to Nashville, feel free to order your video games through either our online store or just by calling The Score of Cool Springs directly and having us direct-mail them to you.
There's no reason to think we won't be opening another location next year. So we've got a lot to be thankful for.
I've personally learned a lot since starting this business. Too much to even begin to write. Starting and running a business, and then managing growth, isn't easy or for the faint of heart.
I'll have to come back and try to update this blog again before the end of the year. To those who have reached out and supported The Score as a business, obviously I am very grateful. If you haven't checked us out yet, what are you waiting for?
I'm sure I'll be back here with some kind of year-end update after Christmas. Until then...
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
I don't have a lot of time to update this blog, but I of course am leaving it up because it has meant a lot to me over the years to be able to document my life here in this space.
The Score, as a business, is doing very well as we enter our second year of operations. We're very blessed to be where we are - poised for a tremendous year of growth and opportunity.
I've bounced back well from my melanoma surgery last year, and have been feeling great. While it seems like a distant memory, the various doctor visits remind me that it's not.
The blog, along with my Facebook page, help me stay connected with friends across the world. I appreciate the emails and correspondence with friends over the past couple of years as I've transitioned into this entrepreneurial role where I have found my calling.
I got on here to say one specific thing, though:
It was brought to my attention that when you search for "Actus Lend Lease" (my former employer) and "mismanagement," this blog is the number one search result. As unfortunate of a representation as that may be, I absolutely will not change anything I've written previously about the subject - in fact, I look forward to elaborating on my thoughts on the company at some point in time.
But please don't construe this to mean I'm interested in talking to you - people out there I've never met, who work for PPP interests and/or competitors - about the company or any particular member of its management.
I once slept in a makeshift pile of sheets on the dirty floor of a vacant Actus house for a week so I could learn what it was like to live in one of these military houses. This is, after all, a company I strongly cared about at one point in time. The company still does great things for our military families, and still today has employees there who I care about.
That said, they are struggling to find an identity post-MHPI and are doing just fine not winning new business or developing successful new strategy without my help.
So get lost. Do not contact me for any reason about Actus Lend Lease. I'm running my own startup now - I don't need these types of distractions. Go bother someone else.
The Score, as a business, is doing very well as we enter our second year of operations. We're very blessed to be where we are - poised for a tremendous year of growth and opportunity.
I've bounced back well from my melanoma surgery last year, and have been feeling great. While it seems like a distant memory, the various doctor visits remind me that it's not.
The blog, along with my Facebook page, help me stay connected with friends across the world. I appreciate the emails and correspondence with friends over the past couple of years as I've transitioned into this entrepreneurial role where I have found my calling.
I got on here to say one specific thing, though:
It was brought to my attention that when you search for "Actus Lend Lease" (my former employer) and "mismanagement," this blog is the number one search result. As unfortunate of a representation as that may be, I absolutely will not change anything I've written previously about the subject - in fact, I look forward to elaborating on my thoughts on the company at some point in time.
But please don't construe this to mean I'm interested in talking to you - people out there I've never met, who work for PPP interests and/or competitors - about the company or any particular member of its management.
I once slept in a makeshift pile of sheets on the dirty floor of a vacant Actus house for a week so I could learn what it was like to live in one of these military houses. This is, after all, a company I strongly cared about at one point in time. The company still does great things for our military families, and still today has employees there who I care about.
That said, they are struggling to find an identity post-MHPI and are doing just fine not winning new business or developing successful new strategy without my help.
So get lost. Do not contact me for any reason about Actus Lend Lease. I'm running my own startup now - I don't need these types of distractions. Go bother someone else.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
48 hours after the 59-0 loss to New England, which the team's owner called "the low point in franchise history," Jeff Fisher apparently feels good enough to crack jokes at the team's expense:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C6HiSOlquc
Very bad timing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C6HiSOlquc
Very bad timing.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
My former employer, Actus Lend Lease, turned ten years old this month.
I was there during almost the exact period of time where the business transitioned from a fast-moving entrepreneurial creature to a slower, more methodical, much more process-oriented mature organization. In many organizations that undergo this change, a bit of the entrepreneurial spirit still remains in pockets of the organization. In Actus' case, it got purged completely from the system...a hidden but significant problem.
So now, the company faces an uncertain future. Should it march into Canada and try to win public-private partnership business there, as is referenced in the video? Nah. Merging with another company or two in the space, getting big, and attacking local and regional public-private partnership business within the United States (outside of the military) is the way to go. A radical organizational change is needed to pursue the business they're going after, in my meaningless-then and even-more-meaningless-now opinion.
Another interesting option is what I always thought of as the 'adjacent-development' strategy. Around these massive MHPI communities Actus builds are large quantities of under-utilized land that could be acquired for dimes on the dollar...purchasing this land and using it to provide relevant services for the military families in the community, as well as nearby, would open up all kinds of opportunities.
This is a company that's not going away, primarily because it owns cash-generating 50-year contracts with the majority of the term remaining. But it could be so much more.
I enjoyed the majority of my time there, and as Marc Sierra suggests in his part of the video, there was always something new to learn - a very positive attribute of the organization.
My own company is progressing like it is in many respects because of lessons learned from my time at Actus, some good and some bad. I think the fact that I even check the Lend Lease website at all, from time to time, or still remain distantly interested in the operations and strategy of the company even now is an indicator the company did something right, though.
While they haven't won any new business in quite a while (the PAL deal was done long before I even left the company, despite the representation of the linked piece), there's no reason why they can't get it going again. It's just going to take a little bit of getting outside the company's comfort zone.
I was there during almost the exact period of time where the business transitioned from a fast-moving entrepreneurial creature to a slower, more methodical, much more process-oriented mature organization. In many organizations that undergo this change, a bit of the entrepreneurial spirit still remains in pockets of the organization. In Actus' case, it got purged completely from the system...a hidden but significant problem.
So now, the company faces an uncertain future. Should it march into Canada and try to win public-private partnership business there, as is referenced in the video? Nah. Merging with another company or two in the space, getting big, and attacking local and regional public-private partnership business within the United States (outside of the military) is the way to go. A radical organizational change is needed to pursue the business they're going after, in my meaningless-then and even-more-meaningless-now opinion.
Another interesting option is what I always thought of as the 'adjacent-development' strategy. Around these massive MHPI communities Actus builds are large quantities of under-utilized land that could be acquired for dimes on the dollar...purchasing this land and using it to provide relevant services for the military families in the community, as well as nearby, would open up all kinds of opportunities.
This is a company that's not going away, primarily because it owns cash-generating 50-year contracts with the majority of the term remaining. But it could be so much more.
I enjoyed the majority of my time there, and as Marc Sierra suggests in his part of the video, there was always something new to learn - a very positive attribute of the organization.
My own company is progressing like it is in many respects because of lessons learned from my time at Actus, some good and some bad. I think the fact that I even check the Lend Lease website at all, from time to time, or still remain distantly interested in the operations and strategy of the company even now is an indicator the company did something right, though.
While they haven't won any new business in quite a while (the PAL deal was done long before I even left the company, despite the representation of the linked piece), there's no reason why they can't get it going again. It's just going to take a little bit of getting outside the company's comfort zone.