Business Week - 10 Rules for Getting Ahead

I was reading Business Week over the weekend and came across a very interesting article / slide show entitled "10 rules on getting ahead". The article is a great summary of the things that we all need to do to get ahead in life. It applies to life in corporate America, a job search and to a limited degree to getting what we all want out of our personal lives (the things that we do for fun beyond work).

There are several key messages. First, it's about your network - build it, use it, don't abuse it. Second, it's about knowing where you are going and being able to articulate your vision. Third, be flexible. Interestingly, it is also has a page on your on-line presence - a LinkedIn profile - a Blog - Podcasts and even Twitter...

Another important idea is that we must sell ourselves - all of the time. Everyone (who wants to get ahead) should all have an "elevator" speech" (probably more than one). A 30 second spiel on ourselves, what we want in a job, a consulting contract, a big project, etc. We must be able to articulate what we want in life.

In my earlier post "Personal Change" I outlined my thoughts (to the degree that one can in a blog post) on networking. But I liked what I saw in the BW article and will be putting those suggestings into action. I'm even going to check out twitter... ;-)

Life After (or During) a Merger

The NY Times isn't the only publication that I read - though it is starting to look that way. Here's another story that has implications for I.T. Leadership and the companies that we work for.

Kelly Holland's article from last June 23rd's New York Times - "Life After a Merger: Learning on Both Sides". Has one major theme - keeping good people and two actions that are required to do so - planning and communicating.

Holland: "Managers trying to integrate newly acquired companies and divisions have their work cut out for them. Many current deals are about growth opportunities, which makes keeping key employees especially important."

Further: "So what, exactly, is the best way to persuade members of the new corporate family to stay? The sensible approach is the simplest: plan ahead, communicate often and treat everyone involved in the deal with respect. Say clearly and early when any cuts will occur, and help people feel that they are a part of the combined company’s culture."

This is good advise for every organization in almost any situation but particularly important when merging or significantly changing organizations. Plan for what you want to accomplish and communicate. Plan to keep the key individuals that you need to meet your goals and actively communicate.

The article quotes - Timothy J. Galpin, a senior fellow at Katzenbach Partners and author of “The Complete Guide to Mergers and Acquisitions," - "A year after a deal closes, Mr. Galpin says, managers would be doing well to have retained 80 percent of the employees they wanted to keep."

If 80% is the best we can do - then the worst could be devastating.

Vacations - Stress Reduction

I recently found the Dilbert Blog!

Given my discussion (random rants) on stress and Scott Adams tech background (he knows of what he speaks and speaks well) I found today's post particularly appropriate. Scott Adams takes a vacation..

Although Scott's thoughts were about the "bad of vacation planning" and the "good of actually being on one" his underlying theme seemed to be "vacation is important". It is especially important in I.T. where people ofter put in long or unusual hours. It's important to have the good memories. The stress reduction inherent in taking time off is critical to individual and organizational well being.

As leaders we need to focus the resources (people and time) on the issues and projects that are important to the business. Making sure that those people are at maximum efficiency is equally important as is managing time within our organizations.

Random rant!

Work Place Stress

Americans are stressed - and work is a big factor. In an article by Kelly Holland in the March 23rd edition of the New York Times entitled "The Tension Builds (It’s Almost Monday)" it is noted that in "Poll results released last October by the American Psychological Association", "one-third of Americans are living with extreme stress, and that the most commonly cited source of stress — mentioned by 74 percent of respondents — was work. That was up from 59 percent the previous year."

In addition "More than half the respondents to the survey said they had left a job or considered doing so because of stress, and 55 percent said that stress made them less productive at work." and "some 48 percent of the employers in the survey said stress created by long hours and limited resources was affecting business performance, but only 5 percent said they were taking strong action to address those areas.

What does this say about leadership? We are knowingly allowing stress to impact our organizations - through loss of productivity and loss of people but are not taking "strong action" to fix the problem! I suspect that many companies are taking NO action.

Several other blogs have picked up on the article and the results. In Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Blog posting "Sunday Afternoons" Mr. Bock notes "If you want to head off the "chronic sadness of late Sunday afternoon," the best way to do that is to give people a great working environment to go to on Monday morning. And the key to that is great supervisors. Select them. Train them. Support them." That's each of us - anyone who is called "the boss" - company leadership.

There are two good examples of companies that have done something about stress - GlaxoSmithKline and PWC. The PWC example I find particularly relevant to I.T. and Technology Organizations. PWC focused on eliminating the interruptions on weekends. I.T. Organizations work weekends - either because of changes that have to be implemented during off hours or project deadlines that won't be met without extra hours or outages. But that doesn't mean that we should expect other work to be accomplished during those times. Giving people the downtime that they deserve, that they need, improves our organization's efficiency, decreases turnover, increases satisfaction.

Finally, in Spherion's blog post "Life in the Cubicle - Burning the Midnight Oil" (from which the graphic in this post was swiped THANK YOU Spherion)they note that "nearly one third of U.S. workers spend between 41 and 50 hours a week at the office, and another 12% clock 50 hours or more weekly.". While we all know that it is often necessary in I.T. to work long hours - it should not constant and leadership has to make sure that we do what is necessary to reduce the requirement for long hours with no break. We also have to make sure that long hours at work are rewarded - not considered normal and expected. A bit of appreciation.

My thanks to the New York Times - many great articles that make me think about leadership, and technology.

Leadership and the Workplace Bully

There is a very good article in today's (3/26/2008) New York Times on work place bully's. That article along with other linked articles and blogs and comments tell a story that we as leaders (manager or not) is important to the success and efficient functioning of our organizations.

A work place bully cuts efficiency, limits effectiveness, increases turnover, reduces communication, hurts our companies, hurts our people - the negatives go on and on. The damage to the individuals being bullied and our ability as leaders to contribute to the success of our company makes quick action a necessity.

Most of us who have been around for a few years have encountered workplace bullies and had to deal with them. My first encounter was at General Electric. At GE (many years ago) the company decided that management by "yelling" was not appropriate and that it was going to stop. We had one manager, in payroll, who had a history of yelling at employees in staff meetings, one-on-one's and occasionally in the hall way. The directive came down - no more yelling. I heard several times from people in that area of the building that he now feared loosing his job - and spent much more time in his office with the door closed. The people in payroll were noticeably calmer and the race to get out of that manager's area slowed.

Since that time I've dealt with situations where one employee didn't like another or where a manager had a problem with a member of his group. My approach has always been to try to take the emotion out of the situation - after all we are professionals. In some cases counselling has worked - either with me or with HR. In one case I moved the person at the receiving end of the bullying to another group where he was much happier and his performance improved dramatically. But I have had people leave - in one case there was a performance issue where despite counseling and changing the individuals position he never recovered. I don't know if I simply intervened to late or whether there were other issues.

Rereading the article I know that I will be more vigilant in the future to insure that this does not happen in my organization.

New York Time article - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/health/25well.html?em&ex=1206676800&en=31b986ad49824972&ei=5087%0A

New York Times blog post - http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/meet-the-work-bully/

To consult or not...

As noted in my early postings - I've been in and around I.T. for a long time, almost 30 years. I can honestly say that I like I.T. and I like leading and being part of I.T. organizations. For the past 6 years I have been both an employee (Vice President Information Technology) and an independent consultant.

I've been asking myself lately which I like more and what do I want to do next. I enjoyed my last "real job" - great company, great people (just in a place that ultimately didn't work). In fact I've enjoyed virtually every real job that I've had (a couple of exceptions which we won't get into now).

I have also enjoyed every consulting "gig" that I've had over the past 6 years. I've "unplugged" a business unit from one company and helped plug it into the acquiring company and in the process helped build a small I.T. organization to run I.T. for that business. I've developed a survey instrument designed to quantify the cost of storage for a small advisory service. I've helped integrate a major acquisition for one of the biggest printers in the country and along the way helped refocus the I.T. Field Service organization. I've done an I.T. assesssment for a really interesting small division of a large pharmaceutical company.

Contributing to a business by bringing an "I.T. Toolkit" to bear on company systems, processes, issues and opportunities is the goal. It can be done in either a consulting capacity or as a permanent employee. I'm now spliting time between the search for a permanent role and looking for another consulting assignement. I've got good people helping me in each pursuit. I've got a good (maybe great) network of people who I trust. I've got a supportive family.

Perhaps the only real issue is uncertainty - consulting is by its very nature uncertain. But permanent roles/jobs are now more uncertain than any time in the past. Jobs bring benefits (health care, vacation time). Consulting brings flexibility. I'll meet great people either way that I go.

The journey continues...

Use a cell phone to check in for your flight

Technology can make life easier and a company's Information Technology organization can facilitate that change. Airlines have a long history of using technology to innovate, improve customer service or to decrease cost. This is another example of that trend.

The New York Times article reviews the roll out (including Continental's) of a service that will allow travelers to bypass the printing a boarding pass! Just display the encrypted bar code, provided by the carrier, on your Blackberry, cell phone or other mobile device and you're on. No more trying to figure our where to print a boarding pass at a hotel.

This type of project with a direct impact on customer experience is ideal for an I.T. Organization. It is a chance to work with the business, to improve customer service and customer experience. It is an opportunity to reward key people with work on an interesting, high visibility project.

I'll watch Continental's roll out - which is only in Houston at the moment - and will try it just as soon as it's available at EWR.

IT Infrastructure as a service

My final comment on Gartner's '08 predictions.

This will come to pass just as purchasing software as a service is becoming more common place. This change will impact how we run I.T., how we deploy our resources and who we hold accountable for service.

By 2011, early technology adopters will forgo capital expenditures and instead purchase 40 per cent of their IT infrastructure as a service. Increased high-speed bandwidth makes it practical to locate infrastructure at other sites and still receive the same response times. Enterprises believe that as service oriented architecture (SOA) becomes common "cloud computing" will take off, thus untying applications from specific infrastructure. This trend to accepting commodity infrastructure could end the traditional "lock-in" with a single supplier and lower the costs of switching suppliers. It means that IT buyers should strengthen their purchasing and sourcing departments to evaluate offerings. They will have to develop and use new criteria for evaluation and selection and phase out traditional criteria.

See all of Gartner's prediction in my earlier post (Gartner's 10 Key Predictions) or at http://gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=593207.

Arthur Clark - Architect of Change

This isn't quite in keeping with the focus of this blog but a very important writer, inventor and futurist from my early years died this week. Arthur Clarke wrote many of the great science fiction stories that I read and reread during my teenage years including Child Hood's End, Against the Fall of Night/City and the Stars, Rendezvous with Rama and the Sentinal/2001 A Space Odessy (and the remaining Odessy books and movies).

From the NYTimes Article referenced in the title - several of my favorite "Clarke Quotes".

¶“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”

¶“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”

¶“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/books/18cnd-clarke.html?pagewanted=1&hp

Subscription Service Software Spending

Gartner's 4th prediction..

By 2012, at least one-third of business application software spending will be as service subscription instead of as product license. With software as service (SaaS), the user organisation pays for software services in proportion to use. This is fundamentally different from the fixed-price perpetual license of the traditional on-premises technology. Endorsed and promoted by all leading business applications vendors (Oracle, SAP, Microsoft) and many Web technology leaders (Google, Amazon), the SaaS model of deployment and distribution of software services will enjoy steady growth in mainstream use during the next five years.

While I believe that this prediction represents on "pendulum" item - 1/3 of business application spending for service subscriptions vs license is reasonable. The trend greatly increases financial flexibility and for those buyers who require limited flexibility in the configuration of an application it could be an ideal way to add capability or increase efficiency.

This change will create another challenge for I.T. as we add capabilities including governance to manage these arrangements. It is an opportunity for us to grow a certain segment of our staff and to improve services to the business and potentially to our customers.

Application Providers use of open source software elements

Gartner's #3 seems to be already well underway. Cost is the reason. Why shouldn't a commercial provider use open-source elements? Assuming that those elements are required, add functionality, are well established and supported - including those elements would have a positive impact on the product and cost.

Gartner's prediction;

By 2012, 80 per cent of all commercial software will include elements of open-source technology. Many open-source technologies are mature, stable and well supported. They provide significant opportunities for vendors and users to lower their total cost of ownership and increase returns on investment. Ignoring this will put companies at a serious competitive disadvantage. Embedded open source strategies will become the minimal level of investment that most large software vendors will find necessary to maintain competitive advantages during the next five years.

Traveling workers - more changes

The next Garter prediction (below) is a bit more mainstream from a technology standpoint. Many of us were experimenting with Citrix and other server based remote desktop technologies in the early part of the decade. But this is a final push to acceptability of these technologies - outside of the firewall.

As a consultant (at least in my current incarnation) I will truly welcome this if I can find a workable solution from a service provider (inexpensive solution - please). I have used blackberry's for years but am not interested in a $50/month solution if I can find a workable answer that uses hotspots securely and can grab my mail off my providers web site. A friend - James Lee - is experimenting with an iPod touch as an answer to this problem and if successful I may go the same route at least for a time.

As a CIO I would welcome the opportunity to provide users with access to services inside the firewall without the burden of hauling a laptop on their regular excursions. The added benefit being the lowered possibilitiy of the loss of that laptop and the information it contains.

Gartner's second prediction.

By 2012, 50 per cent of traveling workers will leave their notebooks at home in favour of other devices. Even though notebooks continue to shrink in size and weight, traveling workers lament the weight and inconvenience of carrying them on their trips. Vendors are developing solutions to address these concerns: new classes of Internet-centric pocketable devices at the sub-$400 level; and server and Web-based applications that can be accessed from anywhere. There is also a new class of applications: portable personality that encapsulates a user's preferred work environment, enabling the user to recreate that environment across multiple locations or systems.

Change is coming - blame Steve Jobs and Company

Continuting the discussion of Gartners 2008 Top Ten Predictions for I.T.

Gartner's first prediction will make life interesting for many I.T. shops that have standardized on Windows - successfully standardized. For many of these shops there have always been islands of Mac. But those islands have remained isolated (read easily contained).

In the past several years (perhaps a decade) Apple has moved closer to Unix (via Next). With the introduction of servers that could be better integrate with the rest of our infrastructure began to find advocates. Apple can clearly serve those shops that have been Mac based for some time. Apple is now poised to extend it reach into new areas with the support of advocates that have found bridges between the Windows or perhaps Unix/Linux and Mac worlds.

With regard to change - this is an opportunity and a challenge - it is an opportunity to better serve a segment of our user population that has been under served today. It is a challenge because it requires new skill sets and resources that have to be fit into already stretched budgets.

Here is Gartner's first Prediction.

By 2011, Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe unit market share in Computers. Apple's gains in computer market share reflect as much on the failures of the rest of the industry as on Apple's success. Apple is challenging its competitors with software integration that provides ease of use and flexibility; continuous and more frequent innovation in hardware and software; and an ecosystem that focuses on interoperability across multiple devices (such as iPod and iMac cross-selling).

The Issue: Immelt's Unpopular Idea

Here's a great example of significant "green" change at the corporate level. One that affects not only I.T. but an entire corporation.

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/mar2008/ca2008034_906295.htm

Gartners 10 Key Predictions for 2008

Addressing another of Gartner's 2008 Top 10 I.T. predictions. Bill Trussell, in his blog, Winging IT addressed the issue of end user preferences driving software selection.

I agree with Bill - end user preferences need to be more highly weighted in software selection.

Green Criteria - a big change

The most striking single thing about Gartners 2008 predictions is that three of these "top ten" are about "green" initiatives. Something that we in I.T. have seldom, if ever, consider. We will be buying equipment with the intent of reducing cost but with added rationale of improving our company's green credentials. We'll be buying I.T. products with the intention of reducing our "carbon footprint" and then looking to our suppliers to do the same.

The Gartner Top 10 are about change. These will be a very interesting type of change one that we will be doing for reasons that are somewhat different then other types of corporate driven intiatives - one potentially for the greater good. One that our organizations and our staff should feel good about.

See the full top 10 in my previous post - but here are the green predictions.

By 2009, more than one third of IT organizations will have one or more environmental criteria in their top six buying criteria for IT-related goods. Initially, the motivation will come from the wish to contain costs. Enterprise data centres are struggling to keep pace with the increasing power requirements of their infrastructures. And there is substantial potential to improve the environmental footprint, throughout the life cycle, of all IT products and services without any significant trade-offs in price or performance. In the future, IT organisations will shift their focus from the power efficiency of products to asking service providers about their measures to improve energy efficiency.

By 2010, 75 per cent of organisations will use full life cycle energy and CO2 footprint as mandatory PC hardware buying criteria. Most technology providers have little or no knowledge of the full life cycle energy and CO2 footprint of their products. Some technology providers have started the process of life cycle assessments, or at least were asking key suppliers about carbon and energy use in 2007 and will continue in 2008. Most others using such information to differentiate their products will start in 2009 and by 2010 enterprises will be able to start using the information as a basis for purchasing decisions. Most others will stat some level of more detailed life cycle assessment in 2008.

By 2011, suppliers to large global enterprises will need to prove their green credentials via an audited process to retain preferred supplier status. Those organizations with strong brands are helping to forge the first wave of green sourcing policies and initiatives. These policies go well beyond minimizing direct carbon emissions or requiring suppliers to comply with local environmental regulations. For example, Timberland has launched a "Green Index" environmental rating for its shoes and boots. Home Depot is working on evaluation and audit criteria for assessing supplier submissions for its new EcoOptions product line.

Gartners 10 Key Predictions for 2008 and Beyond

Gartner, Inc. has highlighted 10 key predictions of events and developments that will affect IT and business in 2008 and beyond in a January press release.

Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and Gartner Fellow noted - "These areas of focus imply a significant groundswell of change that may in turn change the entire industry."

According to Gartner "The predictions highlight areas where executives and IT professionals need to take action in 2008. The full impact of these trends may not appear this year, but executives need to act now so that they can exploit the trends for their competitive advantage."

I'm going to spend the next few posts on these predictions because I believe that several of them are critical to the broad trends that we will see in I.T. over the next several years.

These predictions include:

By 2011, Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe unit market share in Computers. Apple's gains in computer market share reflect as much on the failures of the rest of the industry as on Apple's success. Apple is challenging its competitors with software integration that provides ease of use and flexibility; continuous and more frequent innovation in hardware and software; and an ecosystem that focuses on interoperability across multiple devices (such as iPod and iMac cross-selling).

By 2012, 50 per cent of traveling workers will leave their notebooks at home in favour of other devices. Even though notebooks continue to shrink in size and weight, traveling workers lament the weight and inconvenience of carrying them on their trips. Vendors are developing solutions to address these concerns: new classes of Internet-centric pocketable devices at the sub-$400 level; and server and Web-based applications that can be accessed from anywhere. There is also a new class of applications: portable personality that encapsulates a user's preferred work environment, enabling the user to recreate that environment across multiple locations or systems.

By 2012, 80 per cent of all commercial software will include elements of open-source technology. Many open-source technologies are mature, stable and well supported. They provide significant opportunities for vendors and users to lower their total cost of ownership and increase returns on investment. Ignoring this will put companies at a serious competitive disadvantage. Embedded open source strategies will become the minimal level of investment that most large software vendors will find necessary to maintain competitive advantages during the next five years.

By 2012, at least one-third of business application software spending will be as service subscription instead of as product license. With software as service (SaaS), the user organisation pays for software services in proportion to use. This is fundamentally different from the fixed-price perpetual license of the traditional on-premises technology. Endorsed and promoted by all leading business applications vendors (Oracle, SAP, Microsoft) and many Web technology leaders (Google, Amazon), the SaaS model of deployment and distribution of software services will enjoy steady growth in mainstream use during the next five years.

By 2011, early technology adopters will forgo capital expenditures and instead purchase 40 per cent of their IT infrastructure as a service. Increased high-speed bandwidth makes it practical to locate infrastructure at other sites and still receive the same response times. Enterprises believe that as service oriented architecture (SOA) becomes common "cloud computing" will take off, thus untying applications from specific infrastructure. This trend to accepting commodity infrastructure could end the traditional "lock-in" with a single supplier and lower the costs of switching suppliers. It means that IT buyers should strengthen their purchasing and sourcing departments to evaluate offerings. They will have to develop and use new criteria for evaluation and selection and phase out traditional criteria.

By 2009, more than one third of IT organizations will have one or more environmental criteria in their top six buying criteria for IT-related goods. Initially, the motivation will come from the wish to contain costs. Enterprise data centres are struggling to keep pace with the increasing power requirements of their infrastructures. And there is substantial potential to improve the environmental footprint, throughout the life cycle, of all IT products and services without any significant trade-offs in price or performance. In future, IT organisations will shift their focus from the power efficiency of products to asking service providers about their measures to improve energy efficiency.

By 2010, 75 per cent of organisations will use full life cycle energy and CO2 footprint as mandatory PC hardware buying criteria. Most technology providers have little or no knowledge of the full life cycle energy and CO2 footprint of their products. Some technology providers have started the process of life cycle assessments, or at least were asking key suppliers about carbon and energy use in 2007 and will continue in 2008. Most others using such information to differentiate their products will start in 2009 and by 2010 enterprises will be able to start using the information as a basis for purchasing decisions. Most others will stat some level of more detailed life cycle assessment in 2008.

By 2011, suppliers to large global enterprises will need to prove their green credentials via an audited process to retain preferred supplier status. Those organizations with strong brands are helping to forge the first wave of green sourcing policies and initiatives. These policies go well beyond minimizing direct carbon emissions or requiring suppliers to comply with local environmental regulations. For example, Timberland has launched a "Green Index" environmental rating for its shoes and boots. Home Depot is working on evaluation and audit criteria for assessing supplier submissions for its new EcoOptions product line.

By 2010, end-user preferences will decide as much as half of all software, hardware and services acquisitions made by IT. The rise of the Internet and the ubiquity of the browser interface have made computing approachable and individuals are now making decisions about technology for personal and business use. Because of this, IT organizations are addressing user concerns through planning for a global class of computing that incorporates user decisions in risk analysis and innovation of business strategy.

Through 2011, the number of 3-D printers in homes and businesses will grow 100-fold over 2006 levels. The technology lets users send a file of a 3-D design to a printer-like device that will carve the design out of a block of resin. A manufacturer can make scale models of new product designs without the expense of model makers. Or consumers can have models of the avatars they use online. Ultimately, manufacturers can consider making some components on demand without having an inventory of replacement parts. Printers priced less than $10,000 have been announced for 2008, opening up the personal and hobbyist markets.

See Gartner's January 31 Press Release...

Check Out Bill Trussell's Blog - Winging IT

My friend Bill Trussell has started a blog as a "forum to generate discussion and ideas on how to raise the bar for the IT community in dealing with some of the more difficult IT management tasks and issues we face today."

I will be following (and commenting) on his Blog "Winging IT - http://commuteit.blogspot.com/".

PWC CEO Survey and Change

More on change. I received a copy of the PWC 11'th Annual CEO Survey from a friend at PWC. You can find it at http://www.pwc.com/ceosurvey.

Section highlights;

• Talent remains a major issue, but results fall short – suggesting competitiveness
  is hampered while opportunities lie within reach.


• Two-thirds of CEOs want recruitment, motivation and development improved.
  But they give HR a low vote of confidence.


• Leaders and all-around performers prove hardest to find, while organisational
  structures get in the way of collaborative people.


• Senior or middle management weaknesses are blamed most often for hindering
  change programmes.


• A gap separates vision from execution. Discipline is needed to drive strategies
  through tactics, structures and results.

This says very clearly (and looking at the detailed survey results confirms) that our CEO's have a focus on change and we are often perceived as obstacles to change.

Personal Change

I've talked about changes that we, as senior I.T. leaders, have to make to our own organizations but what about more personal changes. Like when you find yourself looking for new opportunties. Anyone who has found themselves in a job search knows how difficult (on every level) that process can be.

Here are some things that those of you who have not been on a job search need to think about - network, network and network. I was fortunate to work for a boss who was a natural networker - he built his network without thinking about it and taught many of us by example. I'm not a natural networker. I have to think about it - but I do it. I do it because that network is now a background for many things that I do professionally. My list now numbers slightly over 1000 contacts (I went through it recently and deleted duplicates - people who I've lost track of and a few that are no longer with us).

I use that list if need a technical opinion, have a leadership question, when I'm helping friends look for jobs and when I've looked for a job.

We all have networks - we're just not very organizated about it. So first bit of advice. Gather all of your contacts in one place (electronically). If you need it in multiple places - join Plaxo - which will allow you to synch that list to multiple computers. Then take the time to put all of your contacts into that list. Take your business cards (suppliers, peers, friends, etc) into the list, add those friends who's numbers you know by heart. If you are on LinkedIn - use the vCard function to get the people in that list into contacts.

Once you have a good start - send a message, call or write to 5 contacts a week - just say hi - forward an interesting story, make a plan to meet for lunch. Build your network now - you'll find that you use it often and you are going to need it some time - when you find yourself in the middle of a change.