Lessons Learned in International Sourcing
I still remember my first international fixture sourcing trip. Way back in 2005, I traveled with the founder of my previous employer (a fixture manufacturer) to China to explore our asian sourcing options. I remember it well because it left an impression on me that I will never forget. In a few weeks of being on the ground, and visiting suppliers, I left knowing that we had seen the future; this is where manufacturing was gravitating now, and it was only going to accelerate in the future. I also remember how “in over my head” I felt when trying to conduct business in a place where I knew almost nothing of the language, culture, or expectations. Read more 
What a difference a year makes
The theme for this year at south by southwest conference is “What a difference a year makes”. I found this to be true in my own experience of the conference, and many of my fellow attendees made similar comments about the evolution of the conference in general. As in my past year of attendance, my head is full of inspired writing that I am busily getting down onto paper. So, consider this the first in a series of posts. Read more
Haunted by the ghosts of retailers past
They say that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
In the light of Best Buy’s recent decision to pull out of China and Turkey, one is led to conclude that there is still a lot of opportunity for the retailers of today to learn from the lessons of the past. It is doubly frustrating when you believe, as I do, that the very behaviors that led to the success of Best Buy in the United States would have been helpful to duplicate in their entry to china. Read more
Stay Inspired
It’s now officially less than a month until South By Southwest and in honor of the conference I wanted to share a little snippet that up until very recently was included in my speech this year. I had to cut it out, so I’d like to share it with you here. This was especially aimed at those of you that may be attending the conference for the first time, and formed the intro to my presentation. Keep in mind this was a “first draft” and still a bit rough around the edges.
<Snip>
You know, On the first day of my first year attending South By Southwest, I had the good fortune to go out to lunch with some of the awesome folks from Brazen Careerist. During lunch, over a few pints of Guinness a very wise woman in that group (I’m looking at you, Sydney) gave us first timers some great advice. Specifically she told us about how it would feel to leave south by southwest and go back to the <airquotes> real world </airquotes>. As she described the depression that we feel during the re-entry process, My first thought was, “so, about how many of those Guinness’s have you had so far?”. but a few weeks later I knew exactly what she meant.
And so my advice to you is this:
Stay. Inspired.
You have to work at it, inspiration doesn’t always come easy out there in the real world.
It’s easy to be inspired here. South By Southwest is inspiring wholly because of all of the amazing, Read more
The Power of Different
I am a technologist by training, having studied computer science at the University of Delaware in undergrad, and by design I am naturally drawn to technology of all denominations. It should come as no surprise that some of my favorite leisure
time reading materials are technology oriented.
Yet some of my best inspiration has come from outside of the technology sphere, from immersing myself in stimuli that are outside of those things that I would normally be drawn to, and this is a theme reinforced by several of the mentors in my life. Time and again I find that solving complex problems requires experience that is more broad than it is deep, and I thankful that the past few years have helped me broaden my knowledge far outside of my previous education and career experience. Read more
Retail Design, New York City Tourism, and New Beginnings
My wife and I just returned from a trip to New York to visit with my family, and while there we managed to spend one of our days in New York City, where I grew up.
(my family just recently realized that I have nearly reached the point where I have not lived in New York for as long as I lived in New York, and they took this opportunity to remind me of this newly discovered fact several times. Thanks mom!)
We had a chance to have dinner with some friends, who asked my wife what quintessential “New York Things” had I taken her to see. She quickly responded by recounting our first trip to New York, which we spent riding the subway and visiting every Best Buy in Manhattan, along with a few other smaller retailers. In hindsight, probably not the best first impression that I could have provided, however, it serves as a great metaphor for the motivations that drive me as a retail design thinker. I am passionate about what I do. A little too much at times.
I started my career in manufacturing, designing and building merchandising solutions, Read more
Thunderbird
Thunderbird has been on my mind a lot lately, mostly because I have just taken a new position as my first expatriate assignment, and I continue to run into Thunderbirds overseas at a rate that is pretty amazing.
I started to write a post about my upcoming move to China (coming soon), but I soon realized I needed to give some background first, specifically how I got where I am right now.
I’m a technologist by training, and along the way I had picked up enough business knowledge to advance reasonably far through my career. A great deal of this knowledge was picked up from my mentors, members of my “personal board of directors” and my good friend, Google. As I became less of a hands-on technical staff member and more of a manager, I felt increasing pressure to defend my decisions with sound managerial decision making. Read more
South By Southwest 2011 – Time to Vote
It’s that time again: Time to vote for the panels that will be featured at South By Southwest 2011. 
This year, I have proposed a panel covering the topic of enterprise collaboration tools. A complex topic, to be sure, but the focus of my panel discussion will center on the types of tools that can be deployed in the enterprise today, and in the course of our one hour panel, I will make the case that the best choice for enterprise collaboration tools is often the simplest.
Our Panel: Can We Fix the Workplace in 140 Characters?
Keep it Simple
Who are you?
I was recently speaking a friend, helping him to position himself for a job hunt following a layoff at his firm (the second time I’ve done this in the past month, actually). One of the first questions that I asked is, “who are you?”. I asked him to give me a 30 second elevator speech about who he was, to sell himself to me.
It is amazing how many people that I talk to have a hard time with what, at first glance, seems like a simple task. Later on, I was thinking about what I would say if someone asked me for my elevator speech. So I tried it. Out loud. While home alone. After fumbling for about 2 minutes, I realized I needed to work on my own elevator speech. Read more
Personal Board of Directors
I’ve worked for a lot of startups during my career, and one of the greatest benefits that we received when raising venture capital (aside from the money) was often a few new faces on our board of directors. The experience brought by our new board members was often invaluable in advising us with regard to strategic direction and even tactical decisions. It is amazing, actually, how bad your decisions can be when you lack perspective. Having a board of directors is an important component of almost every successful company, and I’ve had great success in transitioning the concepts behind a board of directors into my personal life.
One of my most valuable resources has been what I term as my Personal Board of Directors. Call it what you will, it is always beneficial to surround yourself with smart people. Read more
Michael Diliberto 