If I was a catholic, I would be chanting “Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa, Mea maxima culpa”!
I can’t believe it is six months since my last post here. It is a case of the Cobbler’s children – you know, the cobbler is so busy repairing the shoes of customers that he doens not have time to repair the shoes of his own children! Perhaps this post should read “How to lose authority and reputation with Google by not blogging for six months!”
The truth is I have been absorbed with a mix of client work, personal projects (including the launch of Focus for Humanity - a not for profit that help NGOs and photographers work together – and some mentoring and angel investments in Cairo, Egypt, where I now live – check out the Cairo Photo group (which consists of the Cairo Photo School, Cairo Photo Tours, Cairo Photo Studio and Cairo Photo Services)
He observant amongst you will notice that I have also moved service providers and changed blogging platform away form Squarespace to WordPress. Why? Well I think it is mainly familiarity. I now run a combination of 10 other websites or blogs on WordPress and it just is easier for me to focus on one platform. I think Squarespace is good, but I think the open source and extensibility of WordPress far outperforms anything Squarespace can offer.
For Photographers – my other passion which you can see more of at marcoryanphotography.com – there is much tighter built in integration with key online Stock agencies and archives such as Photoshelter and themes from Graph Paper Press – all of which make it a no-brainer for me to use WordPress Personal opinion – so don’t fill up the comments box with rude comments!
So what is in the pipeline?
Well I am currently rewriting an eBook for photographers about online branding and influence – more of this in the next few weeks – but much of this will be pertinent to small business and individuals who are not photographers too.
I continue to do client work with Premier Farnell plc and to work on helping them build their eCommerce proposition to both their internal customers – the employees – and to the wider market.
I am thrilled to see the eCommerce strategy that I created over 4 years ago delivering all that we hoped. The percentage of eCommerce revenues as part of their global revenues has moved form about 12% when I arrived 5 years ago to nearly 60% globally, and in some regions and countries this is around 80%.
Their brand is evolving They have created the pre-eminent Community for Design Engineers – element14 – they have focused on content and on commerce. Their systems and internal processes are being revitalized to cope with their digital strategy and they continue to outperform the competition as a result. It is very satisfying to have played a major role in such an exciting transition and a privilege to still have some involvement. However the real heavy lifting has been done – and the credit for these superb results – must go to the teams that I was privileged to help establish and to work alongside.
So what can you expect on this blog in the coming weeks and months?
This week I will be posting on the Employee Value Proposition and how this can drive the bottom line, especially in an eCommerce centric company. I have some new reports and insights to share over the coming weeks, and an exciting project that I hope will come to fruition as a Book and course around helping non-eCommerce Managers cope with the digital waves that disrupt their business and giving them the tools to cope.
Speak soon!
