(Or How to Shake Shekels from a Shark and Drachmas from a Dragon)

Those darn Yanks can’t leave well enough alone. As we in the United States are wont to do, we’ve taken yet another hit British show and overproduced it, overglitzed it, and generally turned it into a flaming spectacle.
 
I’m talking about the highly entertaining ABC show Shark Tank, for which I’ve grown a pretty substantial addiction – which says a lot, given my general distaste for the idiot box. In the case of Shark Tank, the idea is a stolen one, twice-removed. The Brits had it first, in the form of what they call Dragon’s Den – contestants appeal to a panel of venture investors (called “Dragons”) for startup funds and guidance with their fledgling businesses. The show crossed the pond to the CBC in Canada, where it received a sexy makeover.
 
Eponymous reality TV producer Mark Burnett, smelling ratings in the water, then brought it to the United States in virtually the same format, as Shark Tank, in 2009.
 
Initially, part of the show’s entertainment value stemmed from the many ways contestants made utter fools of themselves on national TV. Their business naivete made them fresh chum for the agitated Sharks, a panel of experienced entrepreneurs-turned-investors.
 
After a while, though, the “stupid inventor” shtick grew old – business owners kept (and still keep) making the same mistakes and deep-sixing their chances at six- and seven-figure payouts. Since I used to write about start-up finance in a previous life, and since I’ve caught up on virtually every Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank episode thanks to YouTube, I hereby anoint myself as your eminently qualified guide to provide the following 5 Tips for Pitching on Shark Tank.
 
Contestants: heed them, and prepare to make lots of money (“Because at the end of the day, that’s really all that matters”). Ignore them and, as “Mr. Wonderful,” Kevin O’Leary says, “you’re dead to me.”
 
Be sure to check out our VALUATION TUTORIAL HERE!

1. Know Your Valuation

Imagine going for a job interview and then when the recruiter asks about your salary expectation, you reply – seriously — $1 million dollars (twisting pinky finger on cheek optional). Oh, did we mention the job was for assistant crew chief at Burger Hut? That’s what it’s like when someone off the street asks an investor for money and they offer no justification for the value they place on their business. Which leads us to…

2. Have Some Decent Sales Already

Pre-existing revenues (sales) tell investors several important things. One, there is already at least some market for your product; so anyone coming in to help the business already has less work to do. Two, it shows that you’re willing to bust your hump to get sales, and are not simply content to rely on some cash-laden sucker to fund your  lifestyle.
 

3. Don’t Be a Groveler or a Greedster

It’s pretty embarrassing when a person is so desperate that he knuckles under to pressure and winds up parting with 75% control of his company at a fire sale price. Like the guy who’s ready to get married on the first date, it makes you wonder … what’s wrong with this person that would make him so eager? Desperation has a distinct odor to it, one that investors can smell a mile away. Make sure you’re not emitting it.
 
The flip side of that would be know a good deal when you see it. Sometimes there’s room to haggle a bit. And then there are those times to git while the gittin’s good. Otherwise, as the saying goes, “pigs get slaughtered.” Don’t be a pig!

4. Know Your Market/Competitive Landscape

Numerous times, entrepreneurs have stepped into the tank with inventions or services that they’re just sure will revolutionize consumer culture as we know it. Then they’re disappointed when the cold, hard fish tail of reality slaps them in the face with the news that someone’s already done that thing. If you run your idea/invention through a reputable intellectual property attorney, get your patent, etc., you shouldn’t encounter too significant problems along those lines. Yes, it’s expensive. But one could argue it’s even more expensive, in terms of lost time and the embarrassment of humiliating oneself on national television, to not do your market research beforehand.

5. Have Skin in the Game and Sweat Equity

Hang out around moneybags investors for just a short while, and you’ll hear this phrase ad nauseum: “We want people with skin in the game.” In other words, they want you (the entrepreneur) to have a significant, personal, financial stake in your venture’s success. Facing the prospect of homelessness if you fail can be a great incentive to work harder. And people who work hard to make the business a success, presumably, are less likely to squander investors’ cash.
 
All of this could be summed up, in fact, in one simple phrase: know your audience. Learn their language. Know what net present value is and know all your business’s financial fundamentals cold. If you’re asking folks for money (or a job, or anything else of value, for that matter), don’t make them burn up brain cells trying to figure out your deal. Your communication skills need to practically serve your proposition to investors on a silver platter.
 
So there you have it. If you get a deal on the show, congratulations! Just don’t forget your peeps who helped you along the way (ahem). I don’t require much – a token royalty of let’s say, 5% on your Shark-assisted earnings will do just splendidly.

If you found that helpful, make sure you check out the sidebar to this post: How to Ask for the Right Amount

Akweli Parker is the founder of Digital Delta Media LLC, a content marketing services firm. Follow him on Twitter at @aparkerddm

“I hate writing, I love having

 written.”

― Dorothy Parker

Much has been said on this blog about why you want to write and publish lots of articles, ebooks, booklets, slide presentations, audio and video recordings, and so forth. In other words, why you need to be a content machine.

But so far, my personal record when it’s come to publishing a real, live, printed and bound book (for which I’ll use the general industry cut-off of 40,000 words or more) has been a big, fat goose egg. That’s right, zero. It turns out that many of us who’ve thought about getting a book in print are struggling on the execution. One oft-quoted figure is that 81 percent of Americans “would like” to write a book (but presumably have not). 

 I couldn’t find a stat for how many of those people actually saw their desire through to publication, but we do know that more than 280,000 new books are published in the United States alone, not counting e-books and other electronic variants. That sounds like a lot, until you consider there are around 250 million adults in the United States. So despite the increasing democracy of publishing, being able to claim the title “book author” still puts you in pretty rare company.

I probably have a good half-dozen books actually begun — scattered on hard drives across a few computers I’ve owned over the years. And there are at least another dozen book ideas I have scribbled in the margins of notebooks and on assorted stickypads. It’s actually kind of depressing to think that some of those ideas might actually be half-good, and useful, if they could only get “out there.” Let’s change subjects.

Two Culprits

Most people run into two major obstacles when they try to write a book. The first one is themselves. The other is the publishing industry. Of the two, I’d say the former is likely the more oppressive. Explanation on that coming up.

Writing a book – a good one – takes hard work (or lots of experience), discipline, writing ability, and attention to detail. My own Achilles’ heel has always been No. 2, book-writing discipline, more than any other requirement. Like most folks, I did have the discipline to get up and go to work each day, and even the discipline to read books and exercise on a fairly consistent basis … but not much gas left for anything else, like book writing. Plus, I’ve always been more of a “sprinter” when it comes to big tasks, not the “marathoner” mentality required with books.

Fortunately, I overcame that hurdle with the help of authors including Kenneth Atchity (A Writer’s Time) and David A. Fryxell (Write Faster, Write Better). They are both definitely worth checking out. In addition to “you can do it”-style inspiration, they offer some practical tips for making content creation one of your daily priorities.

Assuming you’re already a halfway decent writer, or that you can hire one to clean up your prose, and you’ve actually written the book, that leaves one major obstacle left: the mainstream publishing gauntlet. Just to be clear: I have no particular ax to grind against traditional publishing. Is it a market-ocracy and not a strict meritocracy? Yes. Does it routinely shoot itself in the foot by overlooking talent, maybe even marketable writers who could make it tons more money? Absolutely. But up until now I haven’t had any personal reason to rail against the self-important gatekeepers of traditional publishing.

And fates willing, I won’t have a reason to in the future. As James Altucher lays out in this blog post and in this one, no one really needs traditional publishers any more. If you skip the rest of this post, please do yourself a favor and visit those links. In them, Altucher explains how Amazon’s Createspace is eliminating a major friction point (and expense) between authors and readers. He also explains how “a book is the new business card.” Any professional services provider without one risks becoming lost in a sea of me-too consultants.

So yes, my upcoming book, The Content Commandments, will be published on Createspace, at least initially. If you can own the main benefit of writing a book (that would be credibility, not sales) without hassle, wait, or shelling out major bucks, why wouldn’t you leap at that option? Would I entertain a discussion if approached by a traditional publisher? Absolutely. But like most entrepreneurs, I place huge value on saving time and avoiding aggravation. Hmm … a few days to do-it-yourself publication versus 18 months of negotiations, agents, lawyers, and meddlesome edits? The choice seems pretty self-selecting, really.

(By the way, self-pubbers, do have someone edit your stuff. There are some really awful-reading self-published works out there, and they do, unfortunately, foul the pool — to phrase it politely — for the rest of us.)

If you’ve tried Createspace or another rapid-publishing option, please tell us about it. I’ll let you know how it goes with my book. Stay tuned!

Social Media Reboot Pt. 2 — Customizing Your Twitter Page

Are you still sportin’ the default Twitter clouds-and-eggs combo for your Twitter profile?

If so, you’re missing out on a powerful and simple branding opportunity, as well as a way to visually scoop up more followers. The video below explains how to fix that.

Before you get started, here’s what you’ll need:

A functioning Twitter profile

an appropriate image for your profile icon, or avatar (preferably some square dimension around 130×130 pixels or larger (but less than 700k image size)

(Optional) — a simple, and relatively large background image (2560 x 1600 px), or “theme”; if you don’t have one, there is a wide selection you can choose from within Twitter and online, they just won’t be original

Watch the video for details.

Good news for users of VisualCV, the online, multimedia service that allows you to post what I always describe to people as a “resume on steroids” : the lights at VisualCV will stay on and the servers will stay up, for the foreseeable future.

Background: It looked as if the service was shutting its doors and that users would have to rescue their data before it was permanently dispatched down the memory hole. VisualCV was having a hard go of it financially, despite having a “premium” plan to complement its free offering. (The news of its impending closure hit home personally, as I’ve been a longtime fan and user of VisualCV). A white knight in the form of firm of  job matchmaker Talent Technology scooped up VisualCV and the companies said current users can expect little to no disruption.

Here’s the  text of the email VisualCV sent to users today:

Dear VisualCV Member,

We recently informed you of our intention to close the VisualCV.com website on December 30, 2011.

We are happy to inform you that the VisualCV.com website and technology are being acquired by Talent Technology, a leading solutions provider in the recruiting technology market. Talent Technology will continue to operate the VisualCV.com website, it will not be shut down as previously announced.

All active VisualCV.com member accounts will remain in place; we will not be removing or otherwise destroying member data as previously noted.

Refunds have been made to all customers who purchased premium subscriptions and had one or more months of paid service remaining. We have phased out the premium member support program, giving all members free access to all VisualCV features, and to the online support resources at the VisualCV Learning Center.

Talent Technology and the VisualCV team are committed to making this as smooth and effective a transition as possible, and we do not anticipate you, our VisualCV member, will see any immediate changes or interruption in service.

Talent Technology is committed to leveraging VisualCV’s approach and vision to improving the candidate experience through innovative technology and improved user experience. The service will continue to operate as a standalone offering, allowing current VisualCV users to continue to leverage their dynamic and secure online resumes for free. Users can also look forward to new innovations to help them create even more engaging online resumes faster and easier in the future. TalentTechnology’s mission is to connect people and jobs through smart technology. This agreement strengthens Talent Technology’s ability to deliver on that mission.

If you no longer wish to maintain your VisualCV account you can cancel it at any time by clicking on the “Cancel Account” link on the “My Account” page.

We are proud to have delivered the VisualCV.com service to you over the past four years, and appreciate all your support and kind words. We are pleased a company of the caliber of Talent Technology will be taking over VisualCV.com. We feel they represent a “good home” for both the service and the technology, and will make good and appropriate use of it.

Again, many thanks for your support these past four years. We wish you a safe and enjoyable holiday season, and a prosperous and productive 2012.

To learn more about this acquisition, please visit www.talenttech.com/visualcv.

Best Regards,
The VisualCV Team

Sometimes, just because we know to do something doesn’t mean we actually do it. Doctors smoke. Personal trainers let themselves get fat. And digi-techno people like myself … sometimes fall down on using social media to learn, grow, and connect.

No excuses here — the daily grind of just keeping up with the stuff that pays the bills got the best of me, plain and simple. Meanwhile, I’ve watched not-so-techie family, friends, and business contacts migrate to online social platforms as a primary means of maintaining bonds. If I’ve found any consolation, it’s been in knowing I’m not alone in feeling social media overwhelm.

Brian Blau, research director at Gartner, wrote of “social media fatigue” that, “The trend shows some social media fatigue among early adopters, and the fact that 31 percent of Aspirers (younger, more mobile, brand-conscious consumers) indicated that they were getting bored with their social network is a situation that social media providers should monitor, as they will need to innovate and diversify to keep consumer attention.”

That said, I’m ready to get a jump-start on my 2012 resolutions by resolving to be a more sociable social media presence in the New Year. To challenge myself in sticking with it (and embarrass myself for not), I’m issuing a public declaration: I’ll be publishing a series of video tutorials to YouTube, as part of a self-administered social media “reboot.” And I invite you along to take advantage of this DIY series.

You’ll learn step-by-step how to:

• create custom backgrounds and landing pages for the major social media sites, so you look like a professional (even if you have a tiny or non-existent budget)
• use social media sites to improve your quality, not just quantity of connections
• tips, tricks, and even insider knowledge of how the big sites work

It’s all free, and you can expect episodes about once a week, starting this week and wrapping up around early February or so. To stay updated on the latest episode, simply subscribe to my YouTube channel or add me to your contacts on LinkedIn or Twitter, where I’ll issue a notification with each new video. If you do take advantage of it for your own social media project(s), it would be nice if you dropped me a line somehow — either rate and comment on a video or message me directly through Twitter, LinkedIn (search “Akweli Parker”) or YouTube.

To kick things off, here’s the first video, on how to get started on Twitter:

With that in mind, here’s an analysis of Obama’s speech, with a focus solely on the speech mechanics and forensics. This post will address politics only to the extent that they shaped the crafting and delivery of the speech.

Perhaps fortuitously, my Comcast cable box has been on the blink this week. High-speed Internet has performed fine, though, so I watched the streaming version of the speech on whitehouse.gov/live. This provided two major benefits: the review you’re reading comes relatively uncontaminated by exposure to the hyperbole of professional commentators; and the whitehouse.gov site provided accompanying visuals — helpfully re-inforcing what at times could be fairly abstract concepts.

Jobs Speech Purpose

Any speaker worth his or her 3×5 index cards knows you don’t just stride on up to the podium and riff. You begin with an objective in mind of just how you wish to change an audience. In this case there were two audiences: Congress and the American public. The purpose, however, was singular: get Congress to pass the Administration-proposed American Jobs Act.

Obama faces the inconvenient dilemma that one half of Congress seems bent on opposing him no matter what the proposal — an observation that many former Republican operatives confirm. Thus, his secondary appeal to the American people to pressure their congressional delegation.

This was pretty clever — Obama in essence said, “Look, this isn’t about my approval ratings, it’s about you and your neighbors’ jobs, so tell Congress to do their job and pass the legislation.” Rather than blame Congress directly, he’s said to the citizens, “these are the people you need to complain to.”
As the president put it, “The millions of Americans out of work right now don’t care about politics.” And even more to the point, “The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple, to put more people back to work.”

Setting the Premise for the American Jobs Act

The easiest way to gain support for your position in a speech is to identify with your audience. Establish common ground. On that score, the president’s speech acknowledged what almost every American adult knows: the compact that once guaranteed the American Dream has been broken.

Doing the right thing, acting with integrity and offering skills that create real value (as opposed to the phantom value that helped precipitate the financial crisis) are no longer a sure path to success. Many, if not most of us, have experienced this firsthand.

It used to be that, “If you did the right thing, anybody could make it in America,” the president said. As we’ve witnessed, that has not been the case in recent years. Corporate profits have soared while real wages have declined.

In acknowledging that most people are working harder and getting less, the speech showed empathy for the “middle class,” who are increasingly feeling squeezed and frustrated.

With viewers’ attention duly grabbed, the president was free to then outline the points of his plan — the dreaded “middle” in speechwriting where your risk of losing people multiplies.

Visuals – No “Death By PowerPoint”

I’ll leave it to others to debate the merits of President Obama’s proposals, which by his own admission were nothing new. He confronted and it would appear, de-fanged the most obvious counter-argument, that of funding: “There should be nothing controversial about this legislation … Everything in this bill will be paid for.”

From a presentation perspective though, I thought it was worth noting how that and other points were communicated not just verbally, but visually. Online viewers at whitehouse.gov saw the President speaking, and in split screen, graphics that illustrated key points.

One of the presentation graphics from Obama's jobs speech.

What I found intriguing was how clean and visually engaging the White House communications team managed to make these slides. Unlike most visual aids in political presentations, these were simple, elegant and easy to understand. They were uncluttered and presented only one idea per panel.

They showed a level of graphical professionalism taught in books like Presentation Zen, Slide:ology, and Before&After – but still all too rarely practiced in politics or in office presentations.

They were, I dare say, pretty stunning examples of effective design. They also met a major requirement of presentation graphics in explaining and re-inforcing the message without overshadowing the messenger — the presenter.

So, Did the Speech Succeed?

On its technical merits alone, I would rate this a successful speech. The purpose was made clear; the middle built a solid case using examples, statistics and stories, and was (mostly) unmuddled; the conclusion reminded Americans of their resilience in previous times of great national challenge. The president showed again his undeniable talent as a rhetorician.

But of course the ultimate test for Obama will be whether the jobs bill gets passed and accomplishes its advertised claim of jump-starting employment. One speech does not a successful second run for the presidency make. Americans have short attention spans and even shorter patience. Congressional Republicans have shown their extreme reluctance to practice the once-honored political tradition of bi-partisan compromise.

Will The People actually be moved by last night’s presentation to believe this jobs bill will provide a short-term fix to our economic woes? And if so, will they be motivated enough to support it, in their virtual and real communities as the President and his staff asked?

Time will tell.

Contact Your Elected Officals:
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Akweli Parker is the founder of Digital Delta Media, a communications consultancy near Philadelphia.  Reach him at aparker (at) digitaldeltamedia.com. Connect with him on Twitter: @aparkerddm

In honor of this past Monday being Labor Day, this one’s for you working stiffs. (And doesn’t that describe most of us these days?)

The New York Times ran a well-thought out and research-packed piece on “America’s disengagement crisis” at work — a business problem that costs the country some $300 billion annually. Not sure about you, but where I’m from, they call amounts like that “real money.”

We’re in an age of chronic and persistent unemployment even among the skilled and well-educated. As a result, many supervisors, managers and execs — people in roles of workplace power — hold the position, “you should just be happy to have a job.” And this, employees are made to feel, is justification enough to suppress their wages, skimp on benefits, and otherwise create non-nurturing environments.

The problem with this Lowered Expectations thinking is this: there’s a strong correlation between dissatisfaction at work and dismal bottom-line results (As the authors of the New York Times piece explain). And as I point out in this video, it isn’t exactly rocket science to create an atmosphere in which people are excited about coming to work and giving their best, even when the larger economy appears to be going up in smoke. It all boils down to a few simple things such as respect, fair (and not necessarily astronomical) financial compensation and most importantly, providing a sense of significance.

For that last one, cynics will call it spin, corporate “B.S.” or perhaps some even less savory terms. But it doesn’t change the fact that we humans are meaning-seeking creatures. We want to know that what we do matters. We seek fulfillment. Ultimately, the most self-aware individuals desire self-actualization. Employers may never be able to provide that when a job requires a college grad to staple papers and move them from one corner of the office to another, no matter how necessary a function it is. But what they can do is provide a feeling of progress, by giving that grad opportunities to develop through training, mentoring, and — when rightfully earned — advancement and upward career mobility.

I’ve been harping on this for some time now, but must admit it’s not exactly an original thought — nor a radical one. Here’s how the authors of the NYT piece put it:

“Promoting workers’ well-being isn’t just ethical; it makes economic sense. Fostering positive inner lives sometimes requires leaders to better articulate meaning in the work for everyone across the organization.

“If those who lead organizations — from C.E.O.’s to small-team leaders — believe their mission is, in part, to support workers’ everyday progress, we could end the disengagement crisis and, in the process, lift our work force’s well-being and our economy’s productivity.”

So bosses, employers and anyone else who calls the shots for teams of workers, please read the NYT piece (as well as a few other excellent works in the labor-focused series they did) and take note. “Employee engagement” isn’t a bunch of touchy-feely mumbo jumbo. It’s a legitimate pursuit that yields real-world economic benefits to businesses who take it seriously.

Akweli Parker is the founder of Digital Delta Media, a communications consultancy near Philadelphia. As a graduate of the highly regarded Melcrum Internal Communications Black Belt programs, he helps clients create their own, effective employee engagement strategies that in turn advance their business objectives. Reach him at aparker (at) digitaldeltamedia.com.

Introducing Digital Delta Media Green

We here at Digital Delta Media hold the firm conviction that doing well by the planet is completely compatible with making a profit.

Now, Digital Delta Media offers an assortment of services, tools, and resources to organizations that need to communicate their efforts made on behalf of the environment: Introducing Digital Delta Media Green. 

More and more, it will be critical for your organization to voice to others your goals and achievements when it comes to ensuring a clean, safe and life-sustaining planet for future generations.

Customers use a company’s “green” reputation as one measure for making buying decisions; employees factor it in when deciding where to work and how satisfied to feel about their current employer; regulators, in certain industries, have firmly established criteria for measures such as emissions, fuel efficiency, and proper handling of waste.

For publicly owned companies, shareholders are holding firms financially liable for ignoring the risk posed by climate change. The stakes, clearly, can be quite high.

But there’s no need to go it alone. Digital Delta Media stands ready to help you:

• coordinate and carry out employee awareness/engagement campaigns
• develop materials in all media that express your commitment to environmental stewardship
• communicate your commitment to multiple audiences, resulting in enhanced reputation and strategic competitive positioning.

For free resources and more information on how we can assist you, visit DigitalDeltaMedia.com/green today   

“Are you quick enough to catch the ninja?”

Introducing a New (and FREE) Guide to Using YouTube

By now you’ve probably heard how critical it is that you use online video to promote whatever it is that’s important to you — your business, your group, or a particular cause that you support. It’s been proven time and time again: audiences are much more likely to take action after watching a video than if they simply read text on a screen.

But for many people, even knowing the why behind the need for doing something isn’t enough to overcome the anxiety of not knowing how. So when it comes to using the most popular online video site, YouTube, a new guide from Digital Delta Media helps you to slash through all the confusion.

The Noob to Ninja Guide to YouTube provides step-by-step, illustrated instructions on how to get yourself up, running, and noticed with the world’s No. 1 video sharing site. And it’s chock-full of recommendations that you’ll find helpful whether you’re brand new (a “noob”) to online video or already knowledgeable.

Click here to access The Noob to Ninja Guide to YouTube instantly in PDF format. Save a copy to your laptop, desktop, or tablet PC and be sure to share this link with friends and colleagues!

 

Download The Noob to Ninja Guide to YouTube

Akweli Parker is the founder of Digital Delta Media LLC. He helps individuals and organizations use the power of communication to achieve their business objectives. Find out more at www.digitaldeltamedia.com.

The answer (at the end of this post) was easily obtainable with some elementary sleuthing and basic arithmetic. Perhaps more fascinating was the story behind “Galloping Gertie,” the nickname for the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State. You’ve quite possibly seen newsreels of the doomed bridge twisting and buckling violently in the wind.

YouTube video of Galloping Gertie

Engineers have argued over the years over the precise cause of the bridge’s collapse.  

 The current consensus seems to be that it was aeroelastic flutter: a physical phenomenon where fluid such as air or water “tune in” to a structure’s natural frequency to produce rhythmic motion.

But the story behind the broken bridge is also one of broken communications and project management run amuck. To wit:

• An unvetted design, which ultimately led to the collapse, was chosen over a safer and more conservative one, winning out on initial cost (funding issues had been holding up the bridge’s development).

• During construction, it became obvious how unstable the bridge was, but construction proceeded on the flawed design anyway. According to the Seattle Times, some bridge workers had to “chew on lemons to combat nausea.”

• Questionable financial controls — the inquiry into the collapse found that the state of Washington could not collect on one of the insurance policies for the $5.2 million bridge (1940s dollars, obviously) because an insurance agent embezzled the premiums for $800,000 worth of coverage.

Of what does this collapse from the past remind us? Well, for one thing, it reminds us that 90 percent of a project manager’s work is communication — both with stakeholders and project team members. Central to that communication should be a constant drive to answer the central question: “what problem are we solving?”

In the case of the Tacoma-Narrows bridge, a reasonable answer might have been: “To find a way to provide safe, accessible, and affordable transit between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula , and to build it within a reasonable time frame.”

Problems emerge, however, when ego, stubbornness, and inability to consider unintended outcomes cloud the judgment of decision-makers. When project teams stop vetting their planning and execution against their central question, it becomes an invitation to unmet expectations –and sometimes catastrophic failure.

Fast forward to today: Even with the great strides made in project management methodology over the past few decades, we see how willful disregard of important (if not very welcome) communications can unravel complex undertakings. The Challenger space shuttle tragedy and the BP oil spill provide examples from more recent memory.

As for Galloping Gertie, it’s provided fertile case study material for engineering classes over the years, as you might have guessed. Intriguingly, the only loss of life in the collapse was that of a dog, Tubby the cocker spaniel. Tubby perished because rescuers could not coax him from a car stuck on the bridge.

Now, as promised, the answer to the Google-a-Day question:

Galloping Gertie was 5,939 feet in length, or 1.1248106 miles. One furlong equals 1/8, or 0.125 of a mile.

Divide .125 into 1.1248 and you get approximately 8.99848 furlongs as the length of Galloping Gertie.

Akweli Parker is the founder of Digital Delta Media LLC. He helps individuals and organizations use the power of communication to achieve their business objectives. Find out more at www.digitaldeltamedia.com.