While fresh leadership can be a good thing, sometimes a required thing, it’s evident that the process of transferring it is a complex and significant undertaking.

I often dream of both a infinite future with Carceron, and, of a very different future where someone better, smarter and more innovative than I takes the reins of the company (I think we have those people working for us right now, by the way). While it may look like a proverbial “fork in the road”, it really isn’t – is it? After all, an “infinite future” is nothing more than staying on the same endless “interstate” – and so long as the ride is enjoyable, the customers are happy and employees are happy, who cares? I say enjoy the ride! But every once and a while those “exit ramps” appear, and you can’t help but wonder:

What would I be doing if I weren’t running this business right now? What if I started another business doing ___________ ? What would my business would look like a month after I’m gone? 1 year after I’m gone? 5 years?

And if the company did start to fail, would I come back to save it? As Michael Dell did? – Which I think really speaks to the question: “What does this business mean to me?”

I can tell you that the answer to that question has changed many times over the years as Carceron has grown… and will continue to change in the years ahead. I can’t help but feel that when that meaning ceases to change – ceases to evolve – the exit ramp will look more tempting.I’m not sure why I feel that way. It seems illogical that “the meaning of my company to me” must continually evolve or else I look for greener pastures – but there it is.

In Michael Dell’s case, we could safely assume that “legacy” might be his reason for returning to Dell. With a company as large as his and with so many people working for him, it’s an answer that is as easy understand as it is sincere.

Legacy might be what drives small business owners to stay in a business longer than they should, but I suspect it to be other things.

What’s yours?

My business partner (Jeffrey) and I got into a disagreement regarding this the other day and I thought “Let’s see what the rest of our small world of FaceBook friends and blog readers think”.

Jeffrey, had found a forum post on a product review board on the Dell web site which slammed some new tiny computer that they had recently put out. He emailed me the link saying that transparency was not good in this case. Having read about Dell Hell in Jeff Jarvis’ What Would Google Do?, I was inclined to immediately disagree because Mr. Jarvis made a very good argument to the contrary – that publicly calling Dell out had resulted in him getting what he wanted and that his small set of the articles spread very quickly over the web, becoming a PR nightmare for Dell. Dell finally reacted and learned their lesson and made many other customer service related corrections as a result of this.

However, I have given it some more thought and I have to say I’m not totally convinced that 100% transparency (much less 75% or even 50%) is good for every business, especially small business. Dell is a very large company, many people had never even heard of the Dell Hell incident – I had not until reading his book. Despite the bad PR, Dell remained relatively unblemished. I’m not sure that I could say the same if it were to happen to my small business. They could lose 10s of millions of dollars, perhaps 100s of millions, and remain relatively unscathed. For small businesses that operate in a smaller market those results might be catastrophic.

So ponder on this:

• Would you publish a publicly viewable forum where anyone could write what they wanted about your company and anyone could read what had been written?
  • How would you handle negative commentary?
• How would you react to web site that are erected for the sole purpose of discrediting your company by having users share their negative experiences (e.g. www.dellhell.net)
• Is the concept of transparency more relevant/practical/necessary for big businesses and government than small businesses?
• Does this even matter for service-based businesses?

By the way, what do you think about the transparent canoe? Cool huh?

So, here goes:

When you buy that sub-$300 computer from your favorite store it generally comes with a Home Edition of whatever the current operating system is. The problem with this is that Home Edition Windows operating systems cannot connect to Windows domain servers (this is by design). You must have a business edition operating system to accomplish this, in the case of Vista those editions are Business, Enterprise or Ultimate (Enterprise is for larger companies under a Open Value license plan). So if you buy a PC with Home edition, you have to spend $100-$200 on purchasing the upgrade edition to take it from Home to a Business class edition operating system. You can probably do this yourself, but you might have an IT technician do it, which means an additional $100-$300 in labor.

Next: Almost everyone use Microsoft Office. These sub-$300 never come with Office (perhaps a 60 day trial, but that’s it). Office Basic (Word, Excel, & Outlook) will tack on an additional $100+ and the Small Business Edition (what most people use because it also has PowerPoint & Publisher) will tack on another $300. (Sadly, many businesses skirt this by installing the same Office licenses on every PC, which is obviously illegal).

Finally: A new monitor. this component is obviously optional if you are replacing an existing PC and simply want to use the existing monitor, but if you want a new system, the starting price is $150+.

Let’s summarize least and worst case scenarios:

Least Case: For example, replacing an old computer at your business

• Upgrade to Vista Home Premium to Vista Business +$100 (do installation yourself)
• Buy Office Basic $100
• No monitor, (you have a spare)
• Total: +$200

Worst Case: For example, adding a brand new computer that needs a full Office suite

• Upgrade to Vista Business +100
• Buy and install Office Small Business Ed. +$300
• Monitor +$150 (17′ LCD)
• Labor to install Vista Upgrade and Office software: +300
• TOTAL: +$550 w/o labor; +$850 w/labor

So a new PC, if purchased correctly, really costs more like $500 – $1000.

Don’t believe me? See for yourself. This is a Dell Inspiron that I created this morning. The Inspiron is their consumer class, absolute cheapest model (both in cost and quality).