Andrew Lark

It's France vs. NZ Next Weekend

What a weekend. First Fiji beat Wales. Then Argentina beat Ireland. Brilliant!

The Pumas assured their passage to a quarter-final against Scotland in Paris with a composed and dominant forward display at the breakdown, banishing host nation France to Cardiff where they will meet New Zealand.

This sets-up the first big clash of the RWC. France vs. NZ - I'll be there.

Something to watch...

This is both incredibly humbling and inspiring...

Take A Skill Pill

Good friend Gerry gets some ink for his cool start-up - "Skill-Pill". Need a few of them for sure!

Among the speakers at the iDesign conference in London this week was Gerry Griffin, CEO of training company Skill-Pill. Skill-Pill have a just-in-time learning system that uses short videos (the ‘pills’ of the company name) to reinforce lessons learned in conventional training courses. The Skill-Pills are delivered to the user’s mobile phone over the wireless Internet as 3GP files that can then be watched just before a crucial presentation or negotiation, giving a quick skills top-up

Spiro Says It All

Reducing the number of teams participating in the Rugby world cup is crazy. On the basis of this weekends' games, the only thing missing to keep nations like Tonga and Samoa becoming giant killers is more play together.

Ironically, it might be Northern Hemisphere play that is most benefiting these smaller nations. Commentators can't but help point to the European clubs that so many of these players belong to. These are the same commentators so quick to suggest NZ poaches the best Pacific Island players. Really? After these games they better hope we do lest their mighty rugby nations fall to minnows. Spiro says it all really:

The play of Tonga against South Africa, and against England next weekend (I have no doubt) makes a mockery of the IRB’s intention to reduce the number of teams in a RWC tournament from 20 to 16. Would Tonga - or Georgia - be in this tournament if it had been a 16-team affair?

Michael Jones was right that the difference between Samoa and England was Jonny Wilkinson. Wilkinson is not just a kicker, although he does kick and awful lot, too much for my liking. I’ve always believed you can’t score tries when the other side has the ball. But most of Wilkinson’s kicking is astute and well-judged, which is more than can be said for the rest of the side.

As I watched the world’s largest rugby community, in terms of people playing the game, struggling to defeat one of the world’s smallest rugby communities, and doing so in a boring, brain-dead, contempt-of skill manner, the anger grew in me that journalists like Stpehen Jones of the UK Sunday Times have had the cheek to condemn southern hemisphere rugby as not being the real thing, too air-fairy, too roboticc etc etc etc …

Jones and his ilk have a lot to answer for for the decline of rugby in Britain. His stupid contempt of the athletic, running game played in the southern hemisphere has meant that journeymen players in Britain whose main thumping is banging their chests during the national anthem are promoted as world-beaters. When they come up against opposition which is not got the northern hemisphere disease of the plodding, these journeymen are revealed for what they are, mediocrities.

It seems inconceivable that Tonga could knock England out of the finals. But on the showing of this weekend’s matches such an upset is possible. Let’s hope it happens.

A Tale Of Three Teams

Watching the Springboks play England yesterday was the equivalent of watching ducks compete with hunters on the opening day of the season. What to read into the slaughter of England?

First, like ducks, the players did what they always do - moved forward (mainly backwards actually) with as much individual enthusiasm as they could muster. They were largely directionless, there was no plan to avoid defeat, and as things went from bad to worse, nobody seemed to take charge and alter the formation of play. As for the Springboks - they looked good and now have the advantage of momentum going into the next round - something the All Blacks don't really have following their slaughter of minnows Portugal. Racking up 100+ points isn't something you do every day but this was a walk in the park.

So, England are an undercooked, under coached side and all but out of the tournament - last RWC champs look unlikely to get by Samoa. South Africa are hitting form against soft opponents with sharp play and have momentum - they are clear favorites to take the tournament in my book. Despite being the favorites, and best team in the tournament, we've nothing to benchmark the All Blacks against.

The next round is going to be amazing to follow. Bring it on.

The Larks Are On The Move

Well, it’s been an interesting week! I spent Monday - my first day as Dell’s new VP of Global Marketing & Communications, at the launch of a new family of storage products targeted at the SMB market.

As LogLogic motors into its next phase of growth I made an incredibly tough call to move on to a new opportunity that will enable me and my family to better accommodate our own growth. This wasn’t an easy decision. LogLogic is an incredible success story and keeps going from strength to strength. I’ll be staying on as an advisor and passionate shareholder. They might even let me blog from time-to-time.

Log Management has really come into its own over the past two years and many folks deserve recognition for being part of an incredible journey. Chris, Dominique and a simply brilliant marketing team. The gang at LP&P, Page One and The PR Network for keeping the drum-beat going. Brilliant channel partners who put us on the map in Japan, Australia & NZ. Super smart VCs – especially the crew at Worldview and Sequoia who are more than just money. And, a host of very smart advisors who helped us to better understand log management and meet the needs of customers: all the crew at SANS; James at Redmonk, Mike at Security Incite, Jon at ESG, Nick at The 451; and Mark, Paul & French over at Gartner. If you are in the security or compliance business and not using these people, you are nuts. And a ton of other folks including the team at RD2.

And to whoever wrote log management requirements into the PCI Compliance mandates, I just love you man!

So why Dell? First, the more time I spent with Michael and Mark, the clearer it became that Dell’s transformation is well underway and the more the opportunity became self-evident – work at a great company with brilliant communicators & marketers across global markets; and, continue to build one of the Industry’s hottest brands.

Some other things excited me about the opportunity. Communications is being transformed as a profession and practice – we’re entering a new era in which content, conversations and community are becoming defining forces. As they do, transparency, evidence and corporate journalism really matter. Technology enables us to directly engage our audiences and deliver an unfiltered view – in return we get critical conversations and feedback. I will be able to combine my passion for social media and marketing with that I have for communications on a massive playing field.

And, I’ve always held a soft spot for Dell. I spent time imbedded inside Dell Europe and then consulting to Dell in the US and around the world. It’s going to be fun back in Austin.

So what of Group Lark and my other interests. I don’t plan to miss a beat. The team at Group Lark will keep motoring along. And I’m as passionate as ever about my involvement with No.8 Ventures – New Zealand’s leading technology VC firm; my board position with Endace – perhaps New Zealand’s first crack at building our own Nokia; and my role in assisting with NZ start-ups and entrepreneurs through NZTE’s Beachhead program.

Some other questions I got over the past week. Will I stop or reduce my blogging? Never. In fact, I’m launching a new blog, The Daily Lark, next week with the help of the team at Marker. And, I look forward to participating in Dell’s blogging efforts. Are we moving to Austin? Yes, with great trepidation – we love Los Gatos. Who will win the Rugby World Cup? The All Blacks! Sorry, couldn’t resist that last one.

Thanks to all our friends who were great sounding boards as we made this tough decision! Jenny, Michele, Mark, Mark, Marge, Jay, Ben, Alex, Jon, Rod, Glenn… and the rest of you. Thanks! Beer in Austin next month. And, there’s always going to be room at our bigger, Texas-sized house!

Pleo Running Late

Corporate Journalism

Stowe flags a contender for word (or phrase) of the week: Corporate Journalism.

[...] In conversations with another McKinsey colleague, Tom Hayes, a former NYT reporter, we came up with the term “corporate journalism” to describe what we were doing inside of the Firm: applying classic reporting techniques inside of an organization to determine what, if anything, was “interesting” and deserved attention. That filter, “interesting” is subjective. Through McKinsey’s lens it meant information that could enrich the firm through more client engagements and increase the effectiveness of its consultants.

This takes me back to a phrase that Mark Tolliver used lots when I was at Sun: "evidence based marketing". In short, get rid of all the platitudes and well-worn phrases and start with the evidence - then back into they hype if you must. These two concepts together are powerful - communications, message-making, marketing, the act of business, all should start with investigative rigor and evidence. From there, a fair dose of honesty and transparency is required.

Stunner! Sacre Bleus!

Argentina nuke France in the World cup opener. It wasn't just that Argentinean passion prevailed, the French looked rudderless.

Laporte, The Mouth, sat befuddled on the sideline - pondering probably, why he didn't play his best players earlier, and why he didn't shift game plans when it was clear the Argentinean's had enough power up front to take it to them.

When the French turn-up and play they are brilliant. When they don't, things go south fast. Does this mean we will see France in Cardiff? Maybe, but they'll have to get past Ireland first. If there are two teams who will be massively motivated by today's game it will be Ireland and Italy - The Argentineans just showed them both that even great teams can fall on the day.

This in no way spells the end for France - it's the second time that the hosts have lost the opening match. The last time was in 1991 when England lost to New Zealand. Remember what happened - England made the World Cup final, New Zealand did not.

WRC On Your Apple iPhone

The gang at Zodal are out with what looks like a nifty way to keep track of the Rugby World Cup. Will work on the Apple iPhone as well as a variety of Nokia and Samsung devices. Another good reason to buy an iPhone.