Thanks to my desktop alerts from ABC7News, I just heard the big news that Carol Bartz of AutoDesk has been named as CEO at Yahoo, replacing Jerry Wang.    Any time a woman is named to a big role in Silicon Valley, I think it’s a good thing…although, based on the ‘Sarah Palin incident’, it also must be a QUALIFIED woman (but I digress).

There is lots of good news around this announcement, I’m sure, but a few things that occur to me:

• Ms. Bartz’ qualifications and accomplishments (increased revenue and stock prices while CEO at Autodesk) are being celebrated at the same time her new role is being announced…this shows evidence of the effectiveness of women as leaders in high tech or elsewhere.
• People are talking about her work ’style’…and from what I can tell, she’s a tough cookie–but I have also heard that she shows care about the people she works with and has ’softened’ her style over the years while maintaining laser focus on the job at hand.
• She is taking on the CEO role at ‘youthful’ Yahoo at the age of 60…I love it!  I remember walking the halls of Yahoo! a few years ago and wondering how anyone over the age of 30 could ever fit in…perhaps things have changed there, or perhaps they are about to… (yes, people over 30 DO understand technology!)
• A fellow consultant, Nilofer Merchant, CEO of Rubicon Consulting, former manager at Autodesk, and a former WIC presenter also got some press…she is quoted in the ABC7 News article, talking a bit about her thoughts about the appointment.

Not EVERYone is going to see this as good news, specifically, Susan Decker – President of Yahoo! who was also being considered for the role;  or anyone who isn’t keen on seeing a Yahoo!/Microsoft deal go through (there is speculation that it will be revisited with this new change in leadership).  However, I can’t think that big right now–I’m just happy to see a woman get some great press and a juicy role!

Those are a few of my thoughts…would love to hear yours.

Welcome back to work, everyone…hoping that everyone took some good family time off over the holidays since it sure seemed like our clients did!

The great thing about taking a little break is that it gives perspective–and I come back optimistic and eager about the new year…I saw trends over the holiday that are quite promising…I was asked to submit 3 different proposals, which doesn’t normally happen…I have 3 projects booked for this month, which doesn’t normally happen.  With those kinds of things happening, it’s easy to forget about all that doom and gloom ‘R’ word talk…

But I’m not going to get TOO comfy even with such good signs–this is a year to go back to basics and to really get clear on my target customers and how I can help them…especially in times like these.

Some thoughts that I’m having and have already begun to implement:

- Update my website (it’s been awhile…and it’s looking dated, especially re: resources I have links to as well as my products/services sheet which doesn’t represent my most favorite new service I’m providing!).  Check out the topic of the S. Bay WIC Luncheon on March 9: 10 Tricks for Updating Your Website.

- Keep my eye out for news/trends that would be helpful for my customers to know about–and tell them (I did this over the weekend and got a big thank you from my customer for keeping them in mind–talk about immediate gratification!).  Check out www.marketresearch.com for inexpensive research reports or www.findarticles.com to find current news items for an industry, your client’s competitors, etc.

- Do some prospecting–I have been reliant upon the steady stream of referrals that I’ve gotten over the past 10 years to feed my business, but in times like these, doing some intentional, deliberate prospecting makes a lot of sense–it will expand my pool of prospects beyond my personal network which increases the odds of finding someone who needs my services incrementally.

- Partner up with others–I’m a broken record on this one (see my first blog entry!), but working closely with some of my trusted colleagues to brainstorm, share successes, keep one another focused on what we all need to be doing, looking for opportunities to refer one another, and looking for ways to help one another overcome barriers are all the benefits of partnering with other consultants.  There is never a BAD time for collaboration, but a tough economy is a GREAT time for collaboration.

Let’s hear from you about what you are planning to do differently this year–either to overcome the impact of the shaky economy or to get you to your next goals for your business…we have so much to learn from one another!

Jen