Charity starts with you…and usually isn’t tax deductible

During the pandemic, I’ve taken up a new sport – disc golf.  If you’ve never heard of it, it is played like regular golf except you throw Frisbee style discs into metal baskets.  It has some of the benefits (and frustrations) of golf, but is a little less expensive until you start buying hundreds of different discs – each  with different functions – as I have in my attempts to get better at the game.

After playing disc golf for several months, I began to notice a car at a local course where I play regularly, parked in an inconvenient spot for me.  It was at the end of the parking lot about 300’ from the tee area where I would throw, and while off the grass, it sat exactly on the line I needed to throw my disc to approach the basket.  And, every time I came out to play, it was parked in that same spot!  Frankly, I was frustrated someone would park a car there and force me to throw a bad shot in order to avoid it.

One day late last year, as I was ready to throw from this location, I noticed someone in the car.  So, I decided I was going to ask him to move his car.  After approaching the vehicle, I realized the person was an older woman.  I told her I was about to throw my Frisbee and asked her to move to be sure I didn’t hit her car.  She explained if I hit her it, my throw would be “out of bounds”, but knowing disc golf rules, I informed her it was normal to throw a wide angled “hyzer” shot that way, and it would only be out of bounds because she was parked in the one spot in this huge lot where she was in the way!  She then told me she had been having some battery problems and couldn’t move the car and proceeded to get  out of her car and walked off (I guess expecting I was going to hit it).  One thing was obvious – if I did hit her car, I wouldn’t be the first person to do it.  It had many dents from flying discs!  Not really having a clue as to what had just happened, I went back to the tee box and over-corrected my shot once more to avoid hitting her jalopy.

It was only later in the round I came to my senses and realized what was going on.  That car had been there for months – it was broken down and not going anywhere, and the woman I just ran out of her “home” was living in that car.  In my defense, I have to say this park is in an affluent area in Alpharetta, Georgia.  You don’t see many homeless people here, and it seemed unlikely someone could be living in a car (permanently) in this municipal park.  Nevertheless, I felt bad about the whole exchange and decided I would give her some cash.  

When I approached her the second time, it was clear she was on her guard given our first interaction.  And, when I offered her $20 she asked me “what she could do with it?”  In effect, I think she was asking what she needed to do for it, but after I assured her she could do anything she wanted with it, she accepted it gratefully.  After the ice was broken, she warmed up and complimented me on my red Mustang.  It turns out, this lady, probably in her early sixties, was bright and well-spoken.  She explained to me this parking lot was actually a FEMA site where people who needed assistance could come and stay with access to electricity and water. 

As December approached, my wife suggested we could do something more for this woman and provide her with a nice Christmas.  So, my wife helped to put together several bags of essentials, snacks, clothing and some cash for this lady.  Not even knowing if she would still be there – although she had already lived in this spot for most of 2020 by my observation, we approached her again.  This time, she immediately recognized my car.  We gave her the things we had for her and had a nice conversation about her situation.  We learned her name is Emily.  What was most striking to us was this woman didn’t seem much different than us.  She clearly was an intelligent person who seemed to have fallen on some bad times.  There was no apparent substance abuse and she was making the best of a difficult situation.  To be sure, we probably had doubled her net worth on earth with the few things that we gave her.  When I saw her tags were due in January like mine, I commented we must have the same birth month.  (Fortunately, someone had helped her push the car out of a direct path to the disc golf basket.)  That night was very cold, and my wife and I both wondered what it must be like to live in a car while we were in our comfy bed…

Having told this story to my mom, my mom offered a used, but very nice coat she had dry cleaned for me to take to Emily.  January had a lot of rainy days, so I didn’t get out to the disc golf course for several weeks, but I made my way there yesterday intent on giving Emily the jacket along with some snacks my wife had provided.   Once more, she recognized my car, and as I got out, I noticed she had an envelope in her hand.  After thanking me for the coat, she gave me the envelope.  Surprisingly, it was a birthday card for me! 

She told me:  “I remembered it was your birthday, and I thought you might come back some day.” I think both points are meaningful.  She thought enough of me to remember my birthday was in January, and she expected I just might come back again some day (even if it was the middle of February).  In the image of the card above, you may be able to see she had re-purposed her own birthday card for me.  I guess you could say someone gave this gift to her; she then gave it to me, and now I am able to share with you!

Last year was challenging in many ways and still many political and socio-economic divisions in our country remain.  Not surprisingly, most people want to claim the moral high ground and believe their opinions, values and beliefs to be correct and good (even God inspired).  I am reminded of the words of Abraham Lincoln spoken during the Civil War, when he said: “In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God.”  It is natural to claim moral superiority, and like most people, I’ve expressed strongly what I think is “right” for our country (and in some ways, my opinions of what is right for other people).  But, the truth is, it is easier to improve my own behavior than to change everyone who disagrees with me. 

If I really believe in helping others, I don’t need to wait on Congress to legislate it.  I can do it myself.  As my business partner at my company has often said:  “Charity starts with you…and usually isn’t tax deductible.”

If you want to feel thankful today, help someone who has less than you. Their reaction will probably blow you away, just like it did me.  It truly is better to give than to receive.  We have things we throw away which could change their lives.  Whether you give your money, your stuff or your time, you can change someone’s life.  At the very least, I expect you will change your own.

Contract to Hire - a Win-Win in Tough Times

Over the last couple of weeks as we begin to navigate the changing business norms resulting from the pandemic, we have put together a couple of contract-to-hire engagements with our clients matching them with highly qualified candidates who start on my company’s payroll as consultants with the plan of converting to the client’s payroll in the future. Contract-to-hire (CTH) engagements are projects where a client has a need for a permanent resource, but is unable to add headcount to their payroll immediately. Obviously, many companies find themselves in this predicament at this time. We have found there are definite advantages in CTH engagements both for companies with critical resource needs (but limited ability to hire people currently) and for candidates anxious to get back to work.

A workaround that “works” - Many companies are working under hiring freeze restrictions at this time, but are short of specifically skilled people. Contract-to-hire gives clients immediate coverage of these needs without officially taking on additional headcount.

Faster turnaround - Clients appreciate that CTH allows them to get a highly qualified person in the chair working as soon as the their background check is cleared without the usual HR on-boarding process. Candidates see this approach as the quickest way for them to get to work and their next paycheck.

Quality people/quality employers - There are some exceptionally talented people who are available right now directly as a result of the pandemic. Companies that engage candidates this way have access to some of the best and brightest people on the market. Some highly experienced consultants who typically don’t work in perm roles are interested in such programs and can dramatically improve the talent level on your team.

CTH saves you money - In most CTH engagements, we are able to build into the margin the placement fees which typically occur when companies hire through an agency. Rather than paying the fee upfront, clients pay in “installments” on every hour billed. Because we are able to create a win-win scenario for the candidate and the client, rates under CTH usually are less than the average bill rate paid in pure contract engagements.

Try/Buy - Often, the contract period under contract-to-hire engagements is seen as an evaluation period - both for the client and the candidate. While this generally is the case, we encourage both clients and candidates to not enter into these kinds of engagements unless they both are in alignment in moving forward with a perm offer at a future date. Our agreements allow the client and candidate/consultant to negotiate and move into a direct hire situation as soon as both parties are ready and able.

I would encourage companies to consider contract-to-hire engagements as an effective way to fill critical requirements, save money on recruiting fees, and improve the overall quality of people in your organization. We’ve been effective at negotiating these kinds of engagements recently and can provide both the structure and the candidates to make it work for you.

The New Abnormal

Every business, family and person is learning to adapt to changes precipitated by the Coronavirus outbreak.  This morning, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta, described our situation as “the new abnormal”.  Things are so dynamic tomorrow may cause us to adapt to our newer abnormal.  Change can be difficult in the best of times, but we all are learning on the fly how to make the best of things and (maybe, just maybe) find ways to do things better.

Working Remotely – To be honest, as I write this blog, I am the only person in my company working in our physical office space today, and that’s because I haven’t yet mastered the work from home concept and I’m not wearing pants (OK, that last statement is NOT true).  We discussed how to do this better today on our conference call.  Some takeaways were:

• Make your home workspace mirror your office setup with all of the peripherals, office supplies, etc. you need to do your job;

• Use a dedicated, quiet area and avoid distractions as it is really not possible to do two things well at the same time; and

• Insure your email system, documents, etc. are in sync as version control on multiple platforms is difficult to manage. 

• Don’t neglect system security.

Spring Cleaning – This is a good time to do things you have put off for a while.  In addition to the honey-do list around the house, in our business we are encouraging clients to identify short term projects that have been on the backburner we can help them knock out during this time. 

Available Talent – In the ERP staffing space where we are focused, there are very good people available for assignment right now.  If you are a client needing help now or in the near future, we can sort through a lot of talent to find the best fit for you.  At the same time, we are asking for consultants to show flexibility in their rates and patience with client turnaround as we position them for work.  We are open for business and still matching good people with good companies.

Family Time – One of the benefits people are experiencing during this period is we get to spend quality time with our families (and pets).  After all, you can only watch Netflix and YouTube so much!  While we are distancing ourselves from strangers, the idea of shared meals with loved ones is back in vogue.

Taking stock – Times like these make us prioritize what really matters in our vocation, family and faith.  Most of us have more time to actually think during this time…  If you are like me, there is a lot of stuff which seemed important a few weeks ago that you now find you can do without.  Watching prepper videos – yes, I admit it, it’s become an obsession – I’ve learned “the Rule of Threes”:  you can live up to three weeks without food, three days without water, three hours without shelter and three minutes without oxygen, but you shouldn’t live three seconds without hope!

We will get through this crisis and be smarter and more resilient because of it.  You may be experiencing other benefits as you go through this season in your life.  Please share with us any thoughts you would like and give us some ideas on how you are coping with your new abnormal.

Why Enspire?

A loyal customer recently asked me for a summary of Enspire Partners' capabilities so she could tell some of her colleagues about us.  The bullet points below highlight the reasons many of our clients work with us.

We are the most experienced JD Edwards staffing firm in the United States.

Our leadership team has worked exclusively in this domain for the last 17+ years.  Our span of customers includes over 100 end-client firms running Oracle software, other Oracle Business Partners and Managed Services firms supporting EnterpriseOne and World clients.  We are the only JD Edwards staffing company that regularly exhibits and presents at Collaborate. 

Enspire Partners has been in business since 2011.  We are an Oracle Business Partner headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

We combine Business Partner experience with staffing firm pricing and flexibility.

We fit into a niche between Business Partners who sell project/integration services and traditional IT staffing firms.  Traditional Business Partners are expensive and want to “own” your project and change your processes.  Traditional staffing firms do not understand JD Edwards’ requirements and talent.  We do.

We offer turnkey services in the JD Edwards staffing arena – providing both experienced contractors and perm/direct employee candidates.

We are happy to staff your contract, perm or contract-to-hire needs.  You keep our contractors only as long as you need them.  Our perm candidates come with an unconditional 90-day guarantee.

No one owns all of the talent in the JDE marketplace, but we are very well-connected.

Most Business Partners win your business by presenting their best people, but they staff your project based on who is available from their bench.  We are talent focused (working with JDE Applications, Development, CNC and Leadership candidates), but we do not payroll a bench.  Our approach is to connect you with the best talent available in the marketplace when you need them.

We typically bill our clients $20-25 less per hour than other Oracle Business Partners, sometimes for the same resources.

Because of our lower overhead approach, we charge $20-25 less per hour than other Business Partners for similar services.  (Surprisingly, we also are able to pay our consultants more.)  We know this to be true because other Business Partners often engage our contractors and re-brand them to their customers with no additional value in their markup.

Working with us does not require exclusivity, and we appreciate competition.

Most of our clients blend our services along with a traditional Business Partner (or a Managed Services provider) to get the best coverage for their needs.  We want to give you options without wasting your time.  In the end, you should select the best resource for your opening.

We also can help in other areas.

JD Edwards is an area of specialty of ours, but our recruiting team also is experienced in related areas like infrastructure, support, custom development/testing and Business Intelligence.

Rise of the Machine!

In July, I wrote an article entitled:  “Being More Human”, which talked about some of the advancements in cognitive computing, and also, about how we – as humans – need to find new ways of contributing in our increasingly machine-driven society.

One example cited was the vast computing power demonstrated by computer mastery of games like chess, where the real champion of our planet is a machine, not a man.  The World Computer Chess Championship was held November 13-16, featuring the ten strongest chess programs (“engines”) in the world.  “Stockfish 8”, an open source, purpose-built chess engine won the November tournament, narrowly beating “Houdini” with a score of 3 wins, 2 losses and 15 draws.  Stockfish also won similar tournaments in 2016 and 2014.  More information on this tournament can be found here. 

As a chess enthusiast, I watched as a human grandmaster played “with odds” against Stockfish in an exhibition game while this tournament was underway.  The handicap given to Stockfish was that it had to play from the beginning of the game with only one knight.  In addition to human observers, other chess engines were scoring the game, and we all watched in amazement as Stockfish intrepidly overcame the deficit of a knight to the point where accepting a draw was the welcome response of the human GM (and playing on any longer may have resulted in a loss).

Grandmasters heralded this event as the apex of chess computing.  Chess was effectively “solved” as these engines, relying on massive “tablebases” addressed both the opening moves of the game and the endgame, while deep computational power allowed programs like Stockfish to score millions of positions per second in selecting moves in the middlegame.

Then, something altogether unexpected happened. 

On December 5, AlphaZero, an algorithm developed by Google’s DeepMind division defeated not only the top programs in chess, but also similar programs in shogi and Go.

• After being given the rules of chess and nine hours to “teach itself” chess, AlphaZero demolished Stockfish by the astonishing score of 28 wins, 0 losses and 72 draws. 
• In 100 shogi games, AlphaZero defeated elmo (the World Computer Shogi 2017 champion) winning 90 games, losing eight times with two draws.
• AlphaZero had similar results in Go, except this time it was matched against an earlier version of AlphaZero, which was already the World Champion of Go.

The natural reaction is to assume AlphaZero won because it was able to search deeper or faster, but in reality, it taught itself to search better.  AlphaZero searches just 80,000 positions per second in chess, compared to the 70 million per second Stockfish can evaluate, but AlphaZero compensates by using deep neural network technology to focus on more optimal variations over Stockfish's brute force approach.

Most interestingly, AlphaZero won by playing more like a human (or maybe a superhuman) – using intuition when the event horizon for brute force calculation fails.  AlphaZero often sacrificed material against Stockfish to gain persistent, but less concrete positional advantages. Grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen said:  “I always wondered how it would be if a superior species landed on earth and showed us how they played chess. Now I know.”

For more info on how AlphaZero plays chess, read this article.

If computers can beat chess after only a few hours of self-study, they may be able to do many things – good and bad – if given a little more time.  How long until they develop self-awareness?

Be kind to your computer, and (hopefully) it will be kind to you.

Ellison Speaks About Cloud Computing

Oracle Founder and CTO, Larry Ellison, recently announced new cost-saving measures available to Oracle Cloud customers.

See the entire article HERE

Me or We?

I heard a comment today on sports radio that made me think.

Tom Herman is the new football coach at the University of Texas. He was hired to turn around the Texas program which used to be one of the strongest in the country, but has underperformed for several years. 

On Saturday, Texas lost their first game of the season to Maryland 51-41. After the game, Herman said: “If we thought in nine months that we were going to sprinkle some fairy dust on this team and think we’ve arrived, we were wrong.” To be sure, he was frustrated with the results, but by implication, he was throwing his players under the bus, by saying he couldn’t perform miracles with the crappy players he had inherited. 

Urban Meyer, who is a much more accomplished coach than Herman (and was his boss when Herman coached at Ohio State), took issue with Herman’s “pixie dust” comment and said Herman should stop making excuses as the head coach of the team.

The truth is, we all get dealt certain hands in life. One day, you may become the dealer and can change your game, but today all you can do is play the hand you are dealt the best way you can.

Most of us work in jobs where we depend on others and others depend on you. Some of you are very good at your job, but working well with others becomes a force multiplier.

Being a good teammate and a good leader involves taking responsibility for what you can do – within the team setting – to make things better.

Being More Human

I recently read “The Most Human Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us about Being Alive” by Brian Christian, a very interesting book recommended by a friend.  I learned some things about cognitive computing, but more importantly, it made me think about the unique values we bring as humans in the digital age.

Alan Turing, widely regarded as the father of artificial intelligence (and portrayed in the 2014 movie, “The Imitation Game”), postulated by 1990 a machine would be able to mimic the intelligence of a human so well that at least 30% of human judges could be convinced the machine was indeed a human. The Turing Test evaluates a machine/computer’s ability to “exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human” (Wikipedia).

In 1991, the annual Loebner competition was created to determine which computer would be most humanlike as evaluated by a set of judges in a five minute chat. To create a control group, human “Confederates” would also be paired with the judges in chat sessions. Judges then would vote on whether the entity they were chatting with was human or machine. The machine receiving the most “human” votes would win the Loebner Prize.  The Confederate receiving the most “human” votes would be declared “The Most Human Human”.

The author of the book was selected to be a Confederate in the 2009 Loebner competition.  The book explores his preparation to distinguish himself as Most Human when compared to fellow Confederates and their computer competitors.

The overarching question is: “What makes humans unique?” and interestingly, we find that machines not only can do the things we do, but they can do many things better.  When we say World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen “plays like a computer”, we are complimenting the human that he is approaching the precision of a machine. 

But, being “like a computer” used to mean something different entirely…

In the infantile days of computer research and the development of algorithms, the best “computers” were not machines at all...they were humans (and usually women). In early code breaking attempts at Bletchley Park, the Allies employed small armies of human “Computers”. In fact, if a machine was found in some way to come close to the ability of a human, it was declared to be “almost as good as a Computer”.

How times have changed when the device in your pocket has magnitudes more computing power than the best mathematician! 

To be sure, one way to be more human is to make more mistakes, after all, "to err is human..." Machines in the Loebner competition often were programmed to make typos (or curse) to appear more human.  Conversely, Confederates with in-depth understanding of certain disciplines were commonly regarded by judges as too “booked up” to be real.

Next, the author delved into the philosophical differences between humans and machines.  Descartes famously said: “Cogito ergo sum”, translated, “I think therefore I am”.  A distinctive between humans and machines for decades has been in the ability to associate value in things, not just count them.  But, alas, we find today’s computers also are better at valuation than are we. One example is the systems used to evaluate the stock market. Today, only a foolish investor would put money behind a human analyst whose recommendations lacked solid computer data!

One remaining bastion where machines have not yet surpassed human ability is in the field of creative art.  While a machine can be built to render a copy of a work of art better than a human, building a machine with the genius to create (or learn to create) an original masterpiece which could stand up to professional scrutiny is a challenge we haven’t yet solved...and that is probably a good thing!

If the author asked me, I would say an area where humans continue to be "more human" than machines is in understanding and managing relationships. Indeed, people like you – reading this very blog – are an extension of my personal human network. Of course, some machines now are being taught to act as "virtual counselors".  These go far beyond the automated response lines we all have encountered; some are being used in suicide prevention lines (!) and are programmed to use methods a psychologist might employ in treatment of patients.  (Honestly, this gives me reason to doubt the Psychology profession more than it makes me believe computers are better at relationships than people are - although some of us are better at relationships than others!)

This article doesn’t give me the time to give you the full CliffsNotes summary of the book, and if you read it, some parts may resonate more with you than with me, so I would encourage you to do so.  You should look into whether a machine has successfully passed the Turing Test or not...and don’t use Google! (Because what if the machine is lying to you?)

In a time when everyone from our best trained analysts to fast food workers may soon be replaceable by machines, we would all do well to think of ways we truly are unique - and better.   

An interesting side note is that Hugh Loebner, the benefactor who funded the Loebner competition, previously had been victim of a scam, when for six months he had romantic correspondence with a Russian woman, who later was revealed to be…

A computer. Of the digital kind.

TonyF

Sometimes You Need a Pro

Before today, I had fished Lake Lanier (here in Atlanta) with very little success.  I filled up a tackle box with lures, watched Youtube videos and spent a lot of time on the lake, but basically had been shut out. No doubt, I had been more successful on a one-acre pond my mom owns. 

As the busiest lake in Georgia, I was convinced Lake Lanier was "fished out".

But today was totally different. We loaded up our boat with fish. Were we lucky or had we become great fisherman overnight?  

No.  We hired a professional guide.

Mack Farr has been a fishing guide on Lake Lanier for more than 30 years.  In fact, he he has never had another job!  With him as our guide, less than a minute into our first cast, we were pulling 8-10 lb. fish out of the lake.  After three hours, three of us had caught almost 150 lbs of fish. 

You would think if you "teach a man to fish" he would learn to fish the same way with the same results next time, but in this case, I don't think so. "Captain" Mack has exactly the right equipment for what he does (much is his own branded merchandise). But even with identical tools, I probably would strike out again if Mack wasn't in the boat with me showing me exactly what to do.

The life lesson is that, to be successful, sometimes you need to hire a pro.

• If you want to catch fish, don't hire me. You need a pro like Mack.
• If brain surgery is required, I definitely am not your man.
• But, when you need to hire ERP consultants (or you are an ERP consultant looking for a job), you should call Enspire Partners.  

Don't Waste a Failure

The University of Alabama has won the national championship in NCAA football four times in the last eight years under the leadership of coach Nick Saban.  Many people see Saban as the best coach in football, possibly ever.  They will be ranked #1 when they play the FSU Seminoles to open this year’s college season.

But they lost last year.  Once.  On the last second of the last game.

They were 14-0 going into the championship game against Clemson in January.  In the final game of the previous season, they also had faced Clemson and beat them for the championship.  They led the entire game this year, but Clemson came back and scored on the last play to win the game, 35-31.

Losing is painful, but losing at the 11th hour (in games and in “real” life) can be a killer.  I think it is natural to sulk over a loss or to push back and blame others or your situation (or God, if you are so inclined).  When asked yesterday about the loss, Saban would have been fully justified in saying: “We have been the best team in football over the last decade.  We were the best team in 2016, and we were the best team last year except for one second”.  Or, he could have said: “We beat Clemson the last time we played them.  We lost to them in January, but we would like nothing better than to have another chance to play them for the championship this year.” 

Both statements would be true, but he had a better answer.  Saban said: “We don’t want to waste a failure.”

He is saying, as hard as they worked last year, and for all of the pain they felt when they came up short, they are using their loss as an opportunity to get better.

The Atlanta Falcons had a similar outcome last year – getting to the final game and leading only to lose on the last play.  The motivational phrase they are using this year is “Embrace the Suck.”

I am a very competitive person, and in my job, I get lots of opportunities to embrace failure, because in recruiting there is nothing (but pain) for coming in second place.  Most of the time, I think we can learn lessons from our failures with the goal of not repeating them.  Other times, we have to accept there are things out of our control that may cause a deal to break, and the best remedy to a loss is to work a little harder and put another deal together that turns into a win.

We are having the best year in our six year history as a company with many wins, but we want more.  Let me know how we can help you.

TonyF