Business Development | David Chan

How to Fix Amtrak Through Information Alliances

August 20th, 2009 By DavidChan Leave a Comment

I’ve been a long time Amtrak rider since moving to the burbs north of San Francisco seven years ago. I must admit that I hate driving and prefer to be driven. It would be great if I could own a limousine and hire a chauffeur, but alas, I’m limited to public transportation or driving my own car.

The problem with Amtrak and generally most public transportation is that they don’t really cater to their customers. The information alliances that they’ve built with partners are zero to none. For example, how often have you jumped on Amtrak, say from Sacramento, and got to your final destination in San Francisco, without missing some type of connection? An information alliance / business development effort with the San Francisco public transit system could solve this problem in a heartbeat.

I remember one day leaving San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf on Amtrak and arriving in Richmond, CA only to have missed my connecting BART service by 52 seconds. Yes, that’s how long it took to get from the Amtrak track to the BART track … down one set of stairs … up another. Again, an information alliance, an exchange of data … bits … would have helped me to make my connection.

The problem, I’ve been told, is that each transit authority is only responsible for their little fiefdom. Forget about customer service. Let’s just get our trains there on time … our time, that is. An information alliance with other transit authorities does not help individual company’s “on time” schedules, but it would help us, “the customer.”

I recently read an article about the slippage of Amtrak train ridership on the Capitol Corridor route. The story was written up in the Davis Enterprise. The article states that while ridership is down this year, on-time arrivals are at an all-time high. It doesn’t take a brain scientist to see how easy that is to accomplish … ridership DOWN … on-time arrivals UP?

Amtrak, like so many other public transportation systems should consider themselves as being in the “people moving business”, as Jeff Jarvis would say, NOT in the train business. By building information alliances with BART, the San Francisco Muni, AC Transit, CalTrain, and countless other transportation companies, we all might take public transportation more often. And, after all, isn’t that what we all want for a greener America?

Here’s another information alliance that can be exploited. What if when you arrived at your final destination a rented bike rack was waiting at your disposal? Or, what if a Zipcar or heaven forbid, even another public transit system that was timed to meet up with a “foreign” transit system?

There is no easy answer to this problem. But, there is no way out without an answer. In other words, we have the ability to build information alliances and data exchange. Someone has to start this business development effort in order to change the “drive my car” mentality in California.

It’s outrageous to hear companies like Amtrak boast about on-time arrivals when the real end-to-end experience for the customer is what’s really lacking. An information alliance / exchange of data and a tad bit of planning would really enhance the experience for the customer. It might even perhaps raise ridership because customers would feel confident in getting to their final destination hassle free and timely, if not “on time.”

Real Estate – A Timely Business Development Opportunity?

August 17th, 2009 By DavidChan Leave a Comment

There’s a lot to be said, both good and bad, about real estate business development. For years the world of real estate business development made many people rich, allowed them to retire sooner rather than later and also helped families fund college educations for their children. Now, with the housing crunch and financial debacle, is business development in the real estate market still a good bet? Depends on which real estate market you choose to develop: OFFLINE or ONLINE.

Allow me to first explain the offline real estate market. By offline real estate market, I mean residential homes, apartment buildings, raw land and commercial office buildings … in other words, the physical world of real estate.

Developing business opportunities in the offline real estate market made a lot of people rich, but it also decimated a generation. If you had the good fortune of “buying low and selling high”, you made out like a bandit. However, like stocks, real estate business development is not for the “un-initiated”, nor is it for anyone who doesn’t do their homework. And, even if you do your homework, there are a lot of bad deals and crooked people out there.

Offline real estate development requires an understanding of demographics, local markets, finance, and much, much more. In addition, it requires plenty of money, especially these days, to finance down payments, mortgages, insurance and taxes. It also requires looking at the big picture. It’s all great and wonderful to think about the upside, but what about the downside? In other words, how can you get burned?

Let’s explore an example. Suppose a crooked real estate agent brings you a deal that just looks tremendous on paper. It only requires an investment of a few thousand or perhaps a few hundred thousand in order to make millions. The developer has a great track record and wants to bring low cost housing to people who need it. In fact, the real estate agent believes so much in the deal that he/she has also invested in the deal.

Keep in mind the old adage that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. There are so many scam artists in the world of offline real estate. And, the biggest problem of all is that the stakes are very high, indeed. You can lose thousands, if not hundreds of thousands or your life savings in offline real estate business development. As a tip, one good tool to check for scam artists, like crooked developers is www.ripoffreport.com.

Contrast OFFLINE real estate business development with ONLINE real estate business development. What is this you ask? It’s the world of building businesses leveraging the Internet.

For example, buying and registering a domain name is analogous to buying a piece of raw land in the physical world. Creating a website, then, is analogous to building a house on that piece of physical land. And, adding content (images, text, video, etc.) on your website is like adorning your physical home with furniture, pictures and such.

How is business development executed in the online real estate market … by creating value for your online property. Let’s take an example. When www.PartyPoker.com first launched, it was merely a website for like minded people to pass the time playing poker. Today, it is the #1 gaming site on the Internet, as tracked by www.Alexa.com.

How did Party Poker become numero uno … through community and social proof. They built the best poker site, invited people, friends of friends and affiliates. How do they make money … through advertising and the cultivation of their subscriber base.

Compared to the cost of offline real estate, acquiring, building and maintaining online real estate is peanuts. Yet, the rewards can outstrip those of offline real estate by a thousand fold, if not more. One real life example is the sale of YouTube to Google for $1.65 Billion in 2006.

There are many more examples of online real estate business development opportunities. The key is to pick a niche, understand your demographics, put down stakes, build your dream site, and invite your flock. Sound familiar?

Kenny G – What Makes A Person A Leader

July 15th, 2009 By DavidChan Leave a Comment

I’ve written several blogs about business development and joint ventures. But there’s far more to business development than just knowing how to make deals or closing a sale. A key component of business development is knowing how to be a leader. There’s a famous quote by Vince Lombardi, “Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work.”

No one knows about hard work better than Kenny G, the Grammy award winning Saxophonist. His performances and on-stage presence are legendary. No one gets to his level without good old fashioned hard work and practice. Even a person of his caliber continues to work hard. I’m sure because he loves his art, but also because i think that music is not an end-game, but a journey.

Today, I had the great opportunity to participate in an event with Kenny G. He honored the George Mark Children’s House by visiting with us today, cajoling with the staff, playing with the kids, and just plain hanging out. He even directed his own video footage of the house to use at his concert tomorrow evening in Saratoga.

So, what makes a person a leader? Kenny G defined that today for all the families and staff at the George Mark Children’s House. One can only imagine the amount of requests Kenny G has on his time. And, just think about the amount of available time he has to give, considering his concert travels, set up, practice and even family time.

The fact that Kenny G took the time out of his busy schedule to visit a small, unknown care facility for terminally ill children is an example of what defines a leader. The fact that he spent twice the amount of time visiting than what we expected further illustrates his leadership qualities. And, to top it off, he just made people feel good, which is the real hallmark of a leader.

I’ve previously discussed why the music industry needs to change. New business development paradigms need to be developed which are more aligned with the realities of today’s world. One of these paradigms is the shift to cause-based marketing. This entails taking music and aligning it with a cause. Kenny G’s involvement today serves as an example of how a celebrity, wrapped around a cause, can move mountains. It’s a wake up call for the rest of the “me” celebrities that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Kenny G, collaborated with three of his colleagues: Skyler Jett, Robert Damper and Genevieve Goings on a song called “Eternally.” It’s a song dedicated to the cause of George Mark Children’s House. The song celebrates life, dignity of soul, and compassion. Here is a wonderful example of celebrities giving back to the very people who need it most, our children. You can follow the journey at www.EternallyTheSong.com.” Thanks, Kenny.