Mando Group Ltd - ian_finch

'No Clouds' Album Launch

Just a quick message to let you know that a solo album I've been working in my 'spare' time over the last year or so was launched last month!

It's got off to a good start and I've been getting orders in from the states as well as the UK and various radio stations have been playlisting the song 'contraflow' across Europe and Australia / New Zealand. It's a great time for independant musicians!

You can hear 'Contraflow' as the soundtrack to Matt's video blog and there are various other sites you can sample and buy the album including:

UK Official site: Finchley Music

iTunes

US and Rest of World

It's also worth mentioning that all the proceeds of the album sales are going to be going to various Water Aid charities.

If you get a chance let me know what you think - it would be nice to hear from you.

'Wifi and global travel'

I'm currently taking a sabbatical for a couple of months doing a whistle stop 60 day tour of south america and australasia.

Just thought I'd write a quick blog on the wonders of wifi! - I'm travelling with my macbook and it's amazing to be able to be able to pick up signal and get online in hotels, hostels, airports, coffee shops for either free or for a couple of bucks and just keep in touch

- check email, upload a travel blog, natter on facebook or do some admin - banking, change our travel itinerary - all in minutes.

It truly is an amazing age in which we live - even 1000 km's off the coast of Ecuador in an archipelago in the middle of the pacific, I was able to get off a boat, pop into a cafe on an island and see what was going on back home. Next to me was an american businessman who'd been diving in the morning and was checking his stocks and shares in the afternoon!

It is a strange old world.

Sometimes you're just so happy with your work...

....you simply have to show off about it - check out the case study for our award winning efforts with Mercia Partnership on Mercia World :-)

18 months, 1000's of man hours, a ground breaking concept and a truly exceptional end result...

This is a call

This morning, some colleagues and I (plus another 1000 or so delegates at the Business North West Conference) listened to Dan Germain, Head Creative and co-founder of Innocent Drinks talk on the mind-blowing success of his company. They have seen a meteoric rise in sales to now well over £80m in the 8 years since they started out selling crushed fruit drinks to passers by in the park.

Dan talked in a very engaging manner about quirky PR, brand development and so on but, as with most speeches, it’s sometimes the almost throw-away comments that get you thinking further. One that stood out for me today is this: - he stated quite simply, that however good his marketing and comms are, however engaging the packaging of the product is and whatever nice things they’re doing for their staff or the world they have to keep making the best, tastiest and healthiest smoothies on the market, otherwise it doesn’t mean anything. You could tell he meant it too; he wants to make great, healthy beverages that continually delight his customers.

It made me think about Mando Group. Our ‘product’ is our people, experience, ideas, talent, creativity, technology, process and so on, but we never make the same thing twice. Every time we do a piece of work it’s different to the last. Yes, we have an ever-improving, refined approach to our work but our output and our relationships are forever changing.

And we like it like that, doing diverse work keeps you fresh. But that said; how do you then subsequently get to the point where you can confidentially say you are the best when what you do is so diverse?

So I make this call! – you! the people, readers of our web site, prospective customers, existing friends, partners and potential employees, tell me what it is, in your view, however small an idea or big a niggle, that we can do to be the best provider of web design, application and brand development services we can possibly be. Tell me how we can serve you better, how we can delight you and become your trusted partner. There may be some things we can do straight away and others we can’t or won’t for various reasons but please know that we will read and respond to everything. We are committed to continuous improvement and being less than the best is not in our plan.

You can either comment on this blog (which would be great as it might inspire other people!) or email us at open@mandogroup.com

Announcing Mando Group Web Apps

So this week we launched Mando Group Web Apps dept. The venture is an entirely voluntary thing that will be done out-of-hours by people who just want to make some cool stuff.

While a few of us were away at the Future of Web Apps conference we realised that actually, we all had great ideas all the time but our individual skill set or free time meant it was an up-hill struggle to get something off the ground. We figured the other guys would probably all feel the same way or and so we wrote a bit of a plan on how we could make stuff happen in the company. When we got back we presented the plan to the rest of the staff to see if anyone else wanted to join in...

...our first meeting was this week and two thirds of the company turned up!!

We ended up brainstorming about 12 different ideas for web applications that we could develop and the ideas went from extra features for our intranet through to full blown Web 2.0 dotcoms.

As a group we settled on 4 projects to move forward and each one has a team leader and at least 3-4 other people working on it. This first month is all about designing and scoping and we’re all getting together again in a weeks to see how we’re getting on.

We’re all stoked by the ideas that we’ve had and can’t want to see what apps comes out of this new department

Watch this space to see how we get on!

So we'll be an application development company then...

..and one with a great product too!

The title of this blog might well be obvious to some of our clients who see us like this already but I guess culturally we sometimes just see ourselves as designers who happen to do web.

This, in reality, woefully undersells our corporate experience. Despite investing thousands and thousands of pounds into our technology, we just kind of treat it as a given because we're all about the design and the usability of the Interface....And rightly so as the majority of our customers are primarily interested in how their audience is going to interact with them, but, WE DO REALLY COOL TECHNOLOGY that enables this to happen!

Being at this conference has helped me realise how far ahead of the game we actually are. The Mando Group .Net platform is one of the only pieces of technology aimed at the wider market that can be used for all of the major requirements of commercial web development - publishing, e-commerce, community and integration with other systems. Time and time again, I've heard at this conference the problems start-up companies and developers have had with scaling up their products for mass use and how they needed a platform and yet here are we taking for granted that our platform can serve all these different purposes. Having built it up over time and the course of over 500 projects, what we have is actually quite awesome and a true platform in every sense of the word.

And one that all our clients benefit from as we continually try and improve it. I've also been mulling on the fact that in the last year over 50% of our work has actually been on web applications - not just our ubiquitous content management of web sites, but also applications such as financial extranets, social networking tools, online project management, e-learning, market comparison tools, e-commerce and e-procurement.

We're making cool stuff happen all the time so if you're a client or partner reading this and need a online application developing give us a call! We have the experience and technology to help! :-)

Geeks - the new rock and roll stars

As Dan mentions, a few of us are in London this week attending the Future of Web Apps conference. I'm sure a number of blogs will come out of the experience. This one concerns a rather mad one that ended the first day.

I'm sure some of you will be aware of the Digg Nation Podcasts hosted each week by Digg founder Kevin Rose. This is reportedly the most popular video podcast on the web and essentially consists of Rose and his buddy talking about some cool / funny / unusual articles that have come up on digg.com over the previous week.

I've never actually watched one despite being a casual user of Digg and so I was intrigued by the prospect of the first day of the conference being finished by a live show of Digg Nation broadcast directly from the main stage rather than Rose's living room.

20mins before the filming was due to commence the 1200 seater venue was virtually packed and by the time it started it was standing room only. When Rose and his pal entered the venue and walked on stage it was literally like the Foo Fighters or some other stadium band had come out. People where on chairs whooping and cheering, large sections of the crowd where holding their fists aloft, most with the rock salute of pinky and index finger out and some had there Macbooks in the air with messages written on for their idols to look at.

Crazy. It was suddenly rock and roll to be a geek, talking about other geek's blog posts!

Me being me I started thinking about the psychology of it all and mulled on how far programming and development had come since my first day at Uni 12 years ago when an emaciated young man waddled over and sat next to me and announced his greeting with a 'hellooooo, IIIII'mmm Peter' in a voice that I can only describe as John Major meets Dalek... to the present days where 'computer geeks' are now cool 'web application developers' with macbooks and metrosexual attire... and even those who aren't cool now have media champions to look up to, who validate them, who speak for their generation and make it cool to love gadgets, spend all day indoors online... AND who now get the girls too! (if the marriage proposal from the audience was anything to go by!)

I have to say the show was really entertaining, and very funny in an american Baddiel and Skinner kind of way and interesting too as they commented on all things web and social. An hour flew by and the audience hung on every word that was spoken interacting spontaneously throughout - very web 2.0 in fact!

I'll be tuning in to some more episodes now and watching with fascination as Digg Nation inevitably grows in popularity and influence.

Bill Gates once said while lecturing a load of high school students: "Be kind to geeks because one day they'll employ you"...it now seems they'll be your celebrity heroes too!

Birthday in Barcelona

Mando Group is heading to Barcelona to celebrate our 10th Birthday. Tomorrow we will be spending a night at Casa Camper Barcelona, a hotel which is part of the Camper brand (yes the shoe people). We are looking forward to seeing how Camper has transferred it's mark of innovation and quality to this hotel.

We will also be celebrating our achievements over the past year with our annual staff awards, we will let you know who has shone this year when we return from our day in the sunshine.

We are 10!!

Yup it was this day 10 years ago that Matt and I opened for trading under the name 'Webshed'. Our first office was above Natwest Bank on London Road, in a little business incubator, just a bit smaller than our current small meeting room. Our network was a zip disk and you could put our entire portfolio on it!

Man, a lot's happened in the last decade! way too much to write here in fact. Suffice to say I'm still loving it and reckon I'm working with the best team we've ever had!

Really looking forward to what the next 10 years will hold...

Ian

Cultured companies

So, I've been feeling a fair bit of civic pride recently...

...and walking round our design studio, I keep seeing all this great work we're progressing for the city as it grows and develops in all areas. Examples include:

Arts and Culture: Liverpool Phil, Biennial, Hard Day's Night Hotel and the new Arena and Convention Centre.
Social Enterprise: the Merseyside Single Procurement Vision, Clean Slate, Ariel Trust
Private Sector: Mercia Partnership, Hill Dickinson, Brainboxes....

... to name just a very small number* - all people and companies committed to staying in Liverpool but attracting clients and investment from outside the region thereby making a difference to our city and it's future stability.

It's a good time to be here and there are a lot of great people doing extraordinary things.

*and sorry if I haven't included you in my 5 min braindump :-)

Little Boxes

For this entire weekend and even today I've had the following song lines going round and round and round in my head:

'little boxes, on the hillside
Little boxes, made of ticky tacky
Little boxes, on the hill side
Little boxes all the same'

My understanding is that it is the first few lines from a protest song written in the 50's about all the new build housing estates that were going up all over the place.

The thing is I don't know how I know this or where I first heard the song. Has any one else heard of it?

..actually, I've just googled the first line - turns out there's almost 900 links to content surrounding the song so clearly it's known by a lot of people. It seems there is quite a story behind it! - check the lyrics - at least knowing some more words might help give my brain a rest from the permanent loop of the first verse!...

...I started singing it on saturday and by sunday my wife was giving me that 'seriously, I may have to kill you' look that I receive from time to time - heaven help me if it's still going round in my head tonight!

Does anyone else suffer from this-song-is-in-my-head-and-I-can't-get-it-out-itis??? Comment below with your tune-related tales of woe>>

Grand Re-opening of St George's Hall

One of Liverpool's most celebrated buildings re-opened yesterday after a multi-million pound refurbishment in good time for the 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations. You can read about the immediate festivities surrounding the new launch at the Liverpool 08 site.

I am happy to say I was there, although not as one of HRH Prince Charles' guests but as part of the Sense of Sound choir who performed the Song 'Gabriel' to an audience of dignitaries. It was great to be part of the historic occasion even if i didn't since HRH himself - he was sat directly behind our conductor and I didn't dare take my eyes off her on this, my first gig!

Authenticity II

With regard my blogs last week on differentiation and authenticity I thought I would showcase our web hosting partner Rackspace as a great example of being true to their values. Rackspace have a mission statement / strapline / vision - call it what you will, of: "Dedication. Obsession. Commitment - Fanatical Support. At Rackspace, it's a way of life".

I can say, hand on heart, in dealing with them from their initial pitch to us in 2003 to their ongoing support for our dedicated network no one we have dealt has ever broken this commitment. Of course, they are not perfect, no company is nor are the cheapest by any means but in this area they are faultless - they do what they say they're going to and we value this greatly.

Authenticity

My blog on differentiation earlier this week has caused a fair amount of interesting discussion in the office so I thought I'd share the outcomes:

1. It was generally considered that differentiation is not enough and is actually misleading as a focus. The truth of the matter is that we must seek to be 'authentic' in all we do.

Being true to ourselves and transparent in our hopes, goals and interests will create differentiation in a far more dynamic and honest way than purely focusing on being 'different'.

Difference for the sake of it could end up just being folly and therefore unsatisfactory - for example, one of the greatest differentiators for us can often, ironically, be an adherence to best practise and standards.

2. A desire for innovation is also key to differentiation - being true to oneself, thinking 'what if we just....' Seeing an idea through is an extension to being authentic and can often yield small niche innovations that, over time, gain enough mass to become something extraordinary. The whole being greater than the sum of it's parts.

To be truly authentic is our desire and also our commitment as a company.

Watch this space.

We must differentiate

I found myself singing an advertising jingle this weekend and I asked my wife whether it was from the 3 mobile phone ad. She said it wasn't, but rather the T-mobile one. It occurred to me that, at least in my perception at that moment, the quirkiness of the song chosen for T-mobile made me think of their competitor. This can't be a good thing

My thoughts moved on to the web sites we build for our clients - over 600 of them so far! In a world where there are billions of websites how do we keep helping our clients stand out from the crowd? How do we, as a web design business stand out from our fellow development companies? If I can mistake campaigns as different as 3 and t-mobile because of a song choice how much more effort do I need to make to position Mando Group differently? And, more importantly, make sure every piece of work we deliver is unique and individual to that project?

Solving these questions is crucial to both our clients' success and to ours.

For me, it has to come down to people - we're the only ones who are all different, every single time. Therefore, it must follow that to differentiate, it is about embracing personality. Every single company can be unique if it invests in its culture and people and then allows that to come through in its brand, its service offering and the way it communicates.

It's not easy though - there is a pressure to be 'professional' which can often mean nothing other than being bland and faceless. Don't get me wrong, I'm committed to giving good value and service and I'm right there with making good on a promise and delivering on time...

...but...

- turning up in a suit for the sake of it
- adjusting how I act with people to massage an ego rather than speaking the truth
- doing anything simply because someone else has got one and a box needs to be ticked

Why would I? It would just mean we (Mando Group) are the same as everyone else - with no differentiation. We are looking to work with people determined to bravely do something different, to think clearly, to allow ideas to flow and commit to ongoing evolutionary development.

Lets do something extraordinary and help differentiate one another!

Is this whole social networking thing going just a bit mad?

Social networking sites seems to be going the way of voyeuristic reality TV and the endless celebrity game shows. I think they started out quite interesting but now some are just getting more and more desperate.

In the last few months of my web activity I have:

- 'digged' quite a few articles
- read countless blogs
- myspaced with the best of them
- shared my tunes with other like minded music fans
- linked in with my fellow business professionals

(all quite useful!)

- and found out who my celebrity look-a-likes are
(ok, maybe not so useful , but quite amusing)..

....but never have i found anything as pointless, ridiculous but as strangely fascinating as this www.clipboardsecrets.com a site which has people sharing what's in their computer's clipboard with the rest of humanity.

madness.

If anyone can find something more useless / odd than this or indeed has an opinion on this new generation of web sites then feel free to email me or comment below

High Fives!

...I love them!

No one else is with me in this office. They're all too kool for skool.

I just got publically mocked by a designer after high 5-ing an, admittedly, nervous-looking Project Manager in celebration of his superb sale!

After 6 months of leading the way I may have to give up championing the high 5 :-(

They say a leader without followers is just a man taking a walk...

..or, in my case, 'a man swinging his arm around in thin air going 'owww!' in a loud voice'..

Ah well...

Curse of the 'erm'

Eight of us spent two days learning presentation and public speaking skills last week from a couple of colourful ol' fella's who are masters of their art. Many many things came out of the session but two key points for me where:

1. to... slooow... down.... let the words.... be..... DRAMATIC!
It felt so forced at first but then when you saw yourself on video afterwards you were suddenly aware of how much you simply just babble away and a few simple key statements, clearly said, are all you need to get a point across...

2. avoid 'noise' particularly that most hateful of words 'erm'
Oh my goodness!... When it was pointed out to us how often we just made this useless noise during our natural speech it started becoming to me like that U-uuurrrh! siren on Family Fortunes everytime I or someone else said it – HORRIBLE!

It did get quite amusing though when one of us just got all stressed at one point and let out more erms than vowels in one sentence they were giving! : “erm, I,erm, just, erm, can’t, eeeeeerrrrrrmm, er, ahhh, can't do this! Argh!"....

...hehe, seriously, watch out for people doing it on TV – David 'erm', Beckham is the worst!

We, as human beings can't seem to help ourselves when it comes to 'erm' - it's crazy , so we’re now getting an 'erm' jar in the office – we must be rid of this cursed sound!