Menlo Innovations

I get so impressed with ideas that just seem to make absolute sense. They are a lot rarer than what may be expected also. But recently, I was exposed to a business that has chosen to shift the paradigm. They are doing things far differently than what other companies do, but they are executing their approach and are achieving phenomenal results.

The company I am referring to is Menlo Innovations which is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Being a student at the University of Michigan, and always keeping an eye and ear out for great ideas, it was nice for me to hear of such a cool company around my neck of the woods.

Menlo Innovations is a software company that provides solutions to their customers. But they do so in a way that is not at all the prescribed method by the industry, and for that very reason, I think they are succeeding.

The origins of Menlo Innovations can be attributed to the economic decline following the tech-bubble burst of 2000. The CEO of Menlo Innovations, Richard Sheridan, was layed off at his prior job as a vice president of software development and needed to look for something to do. While he tried very hard to find a new job, his attempts were unsuccessful, and therefore, he decided to get together with a few other people and begin his own company: Menlo Innovations.

The name Menlo Innovations came from the invention factory initially established by Thomas Edison in 1876 located in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

Similar to the images of Edison's invention factory, the office of Menlo Innovations is set up as an open space in which communication and collaboration is maximized. The atmosphere is relaxed with a majority of the workers in their younger ages just post an undergraduate or graduate degree. The entire essence of the company evokes a similar feeling to the general state of Kerrytown, Ann Arbor, where the office is located.

If you know anything about Kerrytown, you already know it is the home of the famous Zingerman's Delicatessan, where people come from far and wide to buy sandwiches that cost $15 and balsamic vinigrette from Italy for $100. Across the street is Sparrow Market, yet another staple of Kerrytown. Sparrow Market is a fresh produce market that provides the inhabitants of Ann Arbor with high quality, fresh food. Just next to Sparrow Market is Monahan's Seafood which has been around for ages and has lovely fish and chips for a reasonable amount. Finally, you will find Kosmo which has some of the greatest B-Bim-Bop and original hot sauce you will likely ever have.

All of these elements combined create an atmosphere that is so unique to Kerrytown, it is hard to truly convey in words. But, amidst all of this, Menlo Innovations runs its factory just upstairs from Sparrow Market, the company itself adding to the Kerrytown atmosphere.

What makes Menlo Innovations so unique in my mind is their approach to dealing with software issues. They have established a method called High-Tech Anthropology, which aside from its excellent name, also adequately describes their method unbelievably well.

In a recent presentation I went to at their offices, a monthly "Taste of Success" meeting, in which Richard Sheridan describes why the software industry is going about their business all wrong and why Menlo Innovations has truly narrowed in on the correct approach, I was able to learn about the intricacies of High-Tech Anthropology and why it seems to work so well.

To begin, its important to understand what an anthropologist is. In the simplest sense, an anthropologist studies culture and studies individuals in that culture. One of the things that Mr. Sheridan talked about initially was how one goes out and finds information these days. He asked the crowd at his discussion, and every seat was filled, and some of the best suggestions included going to Google, the Internet, or reading about it in books.

Mr. Sheridan then took it a step further and asked how we would learn about animals. Would we go to the zoo to do so. Many of the audience members agreed, but Mr. Sheridan was quick to show the downfalls in this approach.

He explains that its important to go and study something in its natural state. See how it functions, and you have to do that up close and personal. He cares very deeply about truly getting to know his customers, how they live their lives, and what would be most beneficial to them. This is where the anthropology of Menlo Innovations comes into play, and it is such a critical element to their success.

Then, what he has done is bridged the gap between the lives of his customers and the software designers, who he has aptly named "homo logicus" because of software designers propensity to do things logically and sometimes forget about the end user in the process.

To combat this, Menlo Innovations uses a "persona web" that is designed based on a marketing approach. It focuses on targeting the largest potential user of the software. In so doing, it also personalizes the software for the developers, which makes them think twice about adding features that may be unnecessary or consider how to present those features in order to make the software as effective as possible. When dealing with projects, software developers actually refer to an individual's name who has been given a biography with certain behaviors associated with their software usage and things that that ideal person would like to accomplish.

The people that are created are fictional, but it is a really innovating means of making the project personal. Software developers are encouraged to ask themselves, "How would this feature benefit Jim or Jack or Jill" depending on the particular project at hand. Therefore, these "personas" become a decision making tool as well as a personalizing tool.

I think Menlo Innovations has really taken an innovative approach to the software industry and it really just makes a lot of good sense. I expect their company to continue to perform well as it has done so already and perhaps even shift the industry standard in the years to come.

You can read more about Menlo Innovations in this Forbes article.

Committee Proposal

Sharing knowledge is how learning happens. Therefore, I thought up a way in which I could innovate the capabilities and capacities of my own concentration at the University of Michigan. I concentrate in a discipline called Organizational Studies (OS) which is run through the College of Literature, Science, & Arts. There are two other departments that I think are very similar to OS, but the University of Michigan has not exploited and harnessed their information as best as possible.

Below is a proposal I sent to the Organizational Studies department to consider in the future:

I propose some sort of committee, group, or body of either faculty members or students (or both) that draws together the disciplines of Organizational Studies, Industrial and Operations Engineering, and Operations and Management Science.

In my opinion, these three different departments tackle very similar goals but take their own unique perspective. To elaborate, I think that all three of these fields are in pursuit of making organizations more efficient and work more seamlessly.

Organizational Studies takes a psychological and theoretical approach to this problem. Students from this discipline think about the external and internal levers of organization and what strategies to employ in order to maximize efficiency. Organizational Studies students think about the “culture” of an organization and the “environment” in which it operates.

Operations and Management Science in the Ross School of Business takes a far more structured and business-oriented approach. I envision their methodologies of analysis to be “bottom line” related and in terms of how changes in operations or management affect the balance sheet and income statement. Decisions are not based on feel but rather numbers.

Finally, Industrial and Operations Engineering are involved in how the systems within an organization work, and the ways in which we can measure them as to achieve maximum results. This discipline makes individuals think about the processes that organizations perform.

Looking at this very brief description of these three departments, it is clear to see that all of them emphasize the organization. However, their approaches are significantly different to one another.

I think it would be beneficial to the academic community, as well as, the students at this university if we brought these three groups together and tried to share knowledge. I think that each one of the departments could benefit greatly from hearing a perspective different to their own, but essentially directed to the same result.

It is worth considering in the years to come.

Streak For The Cash Analysis

ESPN is the Worldwide leader in sports. They are the absolute behemoth when it comes to sporting entertainment. The enterprise, which is owned by Disney, is a multi-conglomerated, multi-faceted sporting portal that sports fans from around the world use. To begin, their website is the 65th most visited on the entire Internet (Alexa.com). This is all websites, in all languages, for all countries around the entire world. That is absolutely staggering and there is no other sporting portal even close to its Internet rank.

In addition, ESPN also provides an almost sickening array of television channels. A brief list of their channels include: ESPN, ESPN International, ESPN 2, ESPN News, ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, ESPN Plus, and ESPN Star Sports. Note that this is an abbreviated list. There are several other ways in which ESPN has figured out for you to consume their sports media.

They have their own magazine, their own award show, their own cell phone, their own line of books, and even a restaurant chain devoted to ESPN.

Some of the prominent sporting rights that they have contracts for include: Monday Night Football, the Fifa World Cup, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, The NBA, Arena Football, Various PGA tour events, NASCAR, BCS College Football games, lots of college basketball.

The reason for sharing the scope of ESPN with you before I get into the Streak For The Cash is to evidence the empire that ESPN has created. Sports can occur at any time and at any place, but ESPN has worked so hard to differentiate their product and bring it to the fans that want to see it no matter where in the world you are, no matter what you're doing. They are a truly incredible organization, and I commend them for continually being one step ahead of the curve and truly seperating themselves in the market.

• Streak For The Cash

Now that we're done understanding just how amazing ESPN is, I wanted to look a little closely at one of the more incredible accomplishments of this sports entertainment giant. Several months ago, ESPN launched the "Streak For The Cash" competition on their website.

The idea behind the game is simple. All one has to do is select the winner of a particular outcome that ESPN provides you with. All different types of sporting events are included in the Streak For The Cash. Often times, the game will ask the participant to predict the outcome in terms of a simple win-lose scenario, but other times, it asks, for example, who will score more points, when will this scenario occur in the game, etc.

The idea behind the game is to predict as many outcomes in a row correctly, as if to create a streak of wins.

There is a massive incentive for getting to 27 consecutive correct predictions and that is the grand prize of $1,000,000. In simple math terms, the probability of correctly predicting 27 outcomes with two possible choices each time is 1 in 134,217,728. That is an absurd probability. Frequently, you will see participants with a streak of 18 or 19 on the Leaderboard which is displayed on the front page of the site, but this is still a long way off from 27.

Anyway, the Streak For The Cash website also provides some interesting participating metrics along with each possible pick. They show the percentage of participants who have selected each outcome and they also indicate to what degree that outcome is being selected by categorizing the scenario into one of four different categories: cold, warm, warmer, hot.

I wanted to find if there was any sort of relationship between the percentage breakdown in each scenario and the probability of success. One would assume that those scenarios that have close to 100% picking one particular side in a scenario would be more accurate. The results I found are most definitely surprising.

• Methods

In order to perform this study, I went back through all of the scenarios available on the Streak For the Cash website since January 1, 2009 up until January 24, 2009. There were a total of 263 scenarios in this time frame. I then set up a simple Excel document which chronicled the percentage picking the winner and the percentage picking the loser. In the same document, I kept track of the degree to which that scenario was being picked and which sport the scenario took place in.

• Results

The following results were found based on my study of the Streak for the Cash:

Distributions - Percentages
In 73 cases (or 27.8%) of the game the percentages have been 90%-100% and 0%-10.

• In 52% of the cases, the majority, i.e., the 90%-100% have been accurate, while 48% of the time the minority, or between 0%-10% of the players have been correct

In 66 cases (or 25.1%) of the game the percentages have been 80%-89.9% and 10%- 19.9%

• In 52% of the cases, the majority, i.e., the 80%-89.9% have been accurate, while 48% of the time the minority, or between 10%-19.9% of the players have been correct

In 52 cases (or 19.8%) of the game the percentages have been 70%-79.9% and 20%-29.9%

• In 48% of the cases, the majority, i.e., the 70%-79.9% have been accurate, while 52% of the time the minority, or between 20%-29.9% of the players have been correct

In 40 cases (or 15.2%) of the game the percentages have been 60%-69.9% and 30%-39.9%

• In 60% of the cases, the majority, i.e., the 60%-69.9% have been accurate, while 40% of the time the minority, or between 30%-39.9% of the players have been correct

In 32 cases (or 12.2%) of the game the percentages have been 50%-59.9% and 40%-49.9%

• In 37.5% of the cases, the majority, i.e., the 50%-59.9% have been accurate, while 62.5% of the time the minority, or between 40%-49.9% of the players have been correct

Distributions – Degree
There were 80 cases of “Cold"

• The majority, i.e., percentage equaling 50% or greater was correct 46.25%

There were 65 cases of “Hot”

• The majority, i.e., percentage equaling 50% or greater was correct 55.4%

There were 59 cases of “Warm”

• The majority, i.e., percentage equaling 50% or greater was correct 52.5%

There were 59 cases of “Warmer”

• The majority, i.e., percentage equaling 50% or greater was correct 49.2%

Distributions – Sport
There have been 11 opportunities with Tennis

• The majority has been accurate 45.5% of the time

There have been 11 opportunities with Golf

• The majority has been accurate 72.7% of the time

There has been 1 opportunity with Mixed Martial Arts

• The majority has been accurate 0% of the time

There have been 61 opportunities with the NBA

• The majority has been accurate 54.1% of the time

There have been 84 opportunities with College Basketball

• The majority has been accurate 44.0% of the time

There have been 10 opportunities with College Football

• The majority has been accurate 70% of the time

There has been 1 opportunity with Women’s College Basketball

• The majority has been accurate 0% of the time

There have been 13 opportunities with the NFL

• The majority has been accurate 38.5% of the time

There have been 48 opportunities with the NHL

• The majority has been accurate 60.4% of the time

There have been 22 opportunities with Soccer

• The majority has been accurate 36.4% of the time

There has been 1 opportunity with Boxing

• The majority has been accurate 100% of the time

• Conclusion

Understanding this information together, in order to maximize one’s probability of success in forming a streak the ideal scenario based on Streak For the Cash data would be a distribution of participants between 60%-69.9%, where the degree of Hot or Not was set to “Hot”, while selecting the sport of Golf or NHL.

New York Teaching Fellows Essays

I am applying to the New York Teaching Fellows. I think I would make an incredible, dedicated, and inspiring teacher. This essay that I wrote for my application is perhaps one of the best pieces of writing I have ever done. I am so proud of it that I decided to share it with you. I hope you enjoy.

Why do you want to be a teacher? What experiences have led you to want to teach in a high-need school in New York City?

I have always wanted to make a difference. When I was in middle school, I joined student government, because I wanted school funds allocated more responsibly. When I was in high school, I raised money to donate a car to a cafeteria server who had fallen on hard times. When I got to college, I took on the Ann Arbor city council and demanded increased lighting in the darkest and most crime ridden areas of off-campus student housing. And here I am at the end of my undergraduate career, waiting for the next chapter of my life to begin, and I am still not satisfied. I have not grown tired of facing a daunting obstacle and overcoming it. I am not ready to give up on changing the world for the better. Quite simply, I want to become a teacher, because I know I can make a difference.

I want to bring a fresh approach to teaching. To do this, I plan on using my natural ability to innovate. I think this is the most important aspect of teaching in a high-need school currently. Why? Because something is wrong! The disparity between the have and have-nots is overwhelming. Education can either work to perpetuate this gap, or it can be the much needed solution. Something must change if we are to correct the injustices and inequalities currently inherent to the system. This is why the role of the teacher must be to innovate. My concentration at the University of Michigan, Organizational Studies, has equipped me with the tools necessary to pinpoint organizational failure and then mold it from the inside and out so that it may succeed.

One way that I hope to innovate is by using and making technology a significant part of my student’s curriculum. Personally, I have a passion for technology and a fascination with the Internet. I have designed my own websites, write my own weblog, and read about new technologies. There is a great deal of importance in making this a priority in education. I think that all productive citizens use technology in their daily lives, and therefore, if these students are to be productive they must be well versed and keep pace with current technologies.

I recognize also that innovation is not always as structured and strategic as my abovementioned paragraph makes it out to be. However, I feel confidently in my ability to deal with ambiguity. When presented with the task of strategically mapping out the future growth of an air filter company to the year 2020, I did not retreat or back down from the challenge. Rather, I excelled and logically and rationally approached the situation and handled it maturely and professionally. I expect the classroom to throw ambiguities at me, but I know I am well prepared.

Finally, I want to be a teacher because I think it will be a good fit for me and a profession that I will succeed in. I think that aside from being a great educator, I will also be a role model and mentor to my students. I am proud of who I am and what I am becoming. In high-need schools, sometimes the most valuable commodity is a positive male role model.

And I make this decision to teach knowing that I will likely meet a challenge and test of a lifetime. But I am up for it. I am ready.

Describe something you have accomplished that makes you proud. What did you learn from this experience that might help you to ensure high academic achievement for all of your students?

Have you ever watched a chameleon change color? It is quite a remarkable thing. Just based on its surroundings, it has the ability to adjust its appearance in order to make it blend better to its background. This has made the chameleon particularly good at adapting to its environment. In this regard, I feel like a chameleon and I are quite similar.

You probably would not notice it at first by my appearance or even if I opened my mouth and chatted with you for a short while, but I was born and raised thousands of miles away from the United States of America. In fact, the first twelve years of my life took place on the southernmost point of the African continent in the Republic of South Africa.

While in South Africa, my capacity to adapt and change was cultivated. I witnessed the fall of apartheid first-hand, which altered the dynamics of the country in several ways. I, along with the rest of the country, felt like we were part of a transition, and we all worked together to adapt to the new way of life. Though I was very young, I thank my mother for placing me in front of the television to view the release of Nelson Mandela and to watch the news coverage of the 1994 free election, explaining to me that I was watching history unfold.

Immigrating to America brought on another set of challenges that tested my adaptability. At first, I had a thick South African accent which made communicating slightly awkward. When friends decided to get nostalgic and refer to cultural references from their childhood, I felt lost and out of place. For the longest time, I felt as though I was carrying around this label of being from South Africa and nothing more.

But rather than getting frustrated and refusing to accept my reality, I persevered and let my natural ability to adapt and to change take its course. And even though it did not happen overnight, today I feel accepted and pleased with the way I am perceived.

This is an enormously powerful insight that I get to live with everyday, and I think would be equally powerful in promoting the success of my students. The lesson I learned is rather than resisting change and giving up because of my frustrations, I learned to embrace change by adjusting to it and being persistent until I found the right way.

I feel like these are fundamental qualities in order to ensure high academic achievement. Learning is a grueling and arduous process that needs patience and commitment. I believe that I embody these traits and want to help my students realize them.

Deliciousness to Cost Index

It has been a while since I posted last, and I suppose that may be the result of my laziness or just inability to sit down for a long enough period to write something. Since my last post, which was very early on in December, (and here we are already at the start of February), I have traveled to New York and Washington, DC. Both trips were phenomenal and I enjoyed my experiences there and the people with whom I shared it.

Either way, the reason I share that information regarding my trips is while I was in New York, a really interesting thought occurred to me and some of the people I was with. To give context to what I'm about to share with you, it's incredibly important to understand that New York's cost of living is astronomical. According to InfoPlease.com, the cost of living index for New York (Manhattan) was 212.1 in 2005. The next closest was San Francisco at 177. This should provide some sort of measure as to how unbelievably absurd it is to live a daily life in New York.

However, people still live in Manhattan and love the place. They say, "Who cares if it's really absurdly overpriced, this is the greatest place in the world to be." And you know what, I agree with them. New York is a fantastic city. Each street, each alleyway, each little neighborhood has its own unique feel, and there are so many of them that you may be able to spend a lifetime exploring this tiny island. After spending just a short time there, I can understand the allure.

Yet, there has got to be some way to objectively judge quality. Due to the fact that all goods and services are inflated in price, one may not recognize a good deal when he or she first sees it.

In order to combat this discrepancy, it is a must to create the Deliciousness to Cost Index. I attribute the name of this index to a fellow I met while in New York. We were walking around and thinking about places where we could eat. He suggested that we go to a place called Mamoun's Falafel, which he posited had the highest deliciousness to cost index in all of New York City.

Obviously, it is hard to verify his claim that Mamoun's has the highest deliciousness to cost index, considering that there are over 16,700 restaurants in Manhattan (which equals one restaurant a day for 46 years apparently). However, the food was definitely delicious, and it did not cost a bundle of money. Two critical factors in determining the index.

I suppose I've provided an example in which the Deliciousness to Cost Index may come into effect, but I haven't really provided any means through which one calculates this value. I provide the analyses here.

• Deliciousness to Cost Index

In order to arrive at the most sophisticated and accurate portrayal of the Deliciousness to Cost Index, I consulted with an acturial scientist at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. My conversation with him relating to the index was arduous and lengthy but our result is flawless.

The determination of the Deliciousness to Cost Index is based on the following equation:

1. Record the value (in Dollars) of the good (or service if edible)
2. Determine the amount of value (in Dollars) you feel that good (or service if edible) was actually worth
3. Divide the number from process 1 by the number from process 2
4. The quotient of process 1 divided by process 2 is the Deliciousness to Cost Index

As you can see, the process by which one arrives at the Deliciousness to Cost Index (DCI) is rather simple, yet it represents something very meaningful to the individual. In order to illustrate this point, I can provide an example.

Johnny is in Manhattan and enters into a restaurant called The Smith. While in The Smith, Johnny decides to order an Ahi Tuna Salad. This dish includes: mesclun greens, french beans, black olives, cherry tomatoes, and roasted peppers (according to The Smith). According to The Smith's online menu, the Ahi Tuna Salad costs $17. Johnny eats his meal and is pleasantly surprised by the rich taste, smooth texture, and is filled with content by his last bite. As a result, Johnny leaves The Smith happy and thinks that he would have easily paid $25 for such an experience. Therefore, The Smith would have a DCI rating of 1.47 ($25/$17).

Very simple measure, but it expresses how the individual feels about their purchase. It would be ideal to always have a DCI above 1.00. That would mean that the food, and its respective deliciousness, is consistenly beyond your expectations based on the price point originally given.

I think that a tool like the DCI could be enormously valuable to restaurants, bakeries, or any establishment that sells goods for consumption at a price. By getting an average of the DCI for consumers of a particular establishment, owners can determine at what price the public values their goods. If a restaurant sees that their DCI is on average 1.50, or consistently above 1.00, they may want to consider raising prices to that price point, because they are exceeding their consumers expectations.

A DCI of less than 1.00 is cause for concern, however. This means that people are consistenly unsatisfied with what they are eating. This can be counteracted by lowering prices of the goods being sold or by improving the quality (aka deliciousness) of the good.

• Conclusion

In this blog post, I propose the Deliciousness to Cost Index (DCI). The method to arrive at the DCI is to take the actual value of a good and divide it by an individual's perceived value of the good. Though the arithmetic is simple, it conveys an enormous amount of information that can be used effectively by owners of restaurants and other establishments that provide goods for consumption at a price. This is only truly achieved when the DCI is found on average amongst most or all consumers.

The next time you walk out of a restaurant, calculate your own DCI. You may be surprised.