Friday, April 30, 2010

Warning: Copiers Contain Data

Think twice before you turn in your copier for a new one.  Did you know that many copiers, especially the ones that can connect to your network, contain hard drives and copies of the documents are stored on that hard disk?  When you turn in your copier, it generally get's refurbished and sold to another user or even another country.  Frequently, the data on the disk is not removed creating a security breach for those in your organization and your contact sphere.  Watch this video and see if you don't consider a new policy for discarding your old copier.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Uncommon Application of Common Knowledge

This week at a regional BNI networking event held in Natick, MA, I had an opportunity to meet Dr. Ivan Misner, CEO and Founder of BNI, the world’s largest networking organization (http://www.bni.com/). As many of you know, I am the President of one of the 5,600 worldwide BNI Chapters, BNI Nashoba (http://www.bninashoba.com/). Dr. Misner spoke about many things including the weekend he spent on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the Caribbean and the “butterfly networking principle” which was the circle of events that caused him to be there. Very interesting the cards life deals out when you are open to receiving them. One thing that really rang a chord was his statement that success is the uncommon application of common knowledge. He wrote about it in his book The 29% Solution. Just think about these simple words and what they mean in your business. You need to think long and hard to see if there is some way to apply this principle when you can’t see the forest for the trees. Our businesses are built on some pretty basic concepts but it’s very difficult to think outside the box and come up with a new angle, a new approach. Take a half-hour and consider what you do and how you do it -- as if you were your customer. Become an empath. What can you come up with. I'd be interested to hear.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Mapping Time

Maps are fun, informative and sometimes great for making a point.  Add data to maps and you have information squared.  Here is a map of Eastern Massachusetts and surrounding areas broken out into 3-digit zip code areas.   
The map details where we have spent our time over the last 10 years.  Other areas of the country have been omitted, but this gives you an idea of where our clients are based. The very bright red areas represent more than 20,000 man-hours, the bright pink is 1,000+ man-hours and the light pink less than 1,000.

It's interesting to see a long history of data painted onto a map and even more interesting if you look at the maps from year to year. 

Think about your data and how you might evaluate your business on a map of the State, region or Country. 

Creating this map took less than 10 minutes.  Creating the data for this map took more than 10 years. Maps can be helpful looking at a decade, year, month or even a day worth of data.
A word about zip codes, zip codes make mapping easy.  If you are not capturing zip codes in your business, think again. 

Thursday, April 1, 2010

TRI Contact Information

Please note that along with our new offices we also have a new phone system.
Our main number is still functional, however, we all have direct voice and fax lines as well.
 
Here is our new contact information.

We hope you find these changes helpful.

Transportation Resources, Inc.
50 Leominster Road, Suite #3
Post Office Box 452
Sterling, Massachusetts 01564
Office: 800-414-3515 or 978 422-7770

Robert McKay Jones Sr.
978 422-7770 x1004
Direct Line: 978-422-4324
Private Fax: 978-422-4325
Mobile: 978-870-2706

Robert Jones Jr.
978 422-7770 x1005
Direct: 978-401-4484
Fax: 978-401-4810
Mobile: 978-660-1529

Joseph Brochu
978 422-7770 x1006
Direct Line: 978-401-4488
Direct Fax: 978-401-4490
Cell: 508-769-3945