.Roaring Mouse

It has been quite a while since I posted and I thought that this is an appropriate time to write my final post. After living and breathing small business computers for the last 3 years as a ThinkPad product manager at Lenovo, the lure of creating something from nothing and the accompanying joys and rewards of being my own boss proved too strong to resist. Friday, the 13th of November will be my last day as an employee of Lenovo and I am taking the plunge and starting a business of my own.

I’ve tried to make sure that Roaring Mouse provides a completely unbiased look at small business (instead of a thinly veiled advertisement for Lenovo products) and tried to focus on topics that are relevant to small biz owners, but also slightly off the beaten path. In previous posts, I’ve argued why this is a great time to start a business, discussed effective outsourcing techniques and explained how cloud computing will proliferate and have more and more of a presence in small business. Little did I know that the considerable amount of research and time spent fashioning these posts would have more immediate benefits and relevance to me! I hope that though the number of posts have been slim, that you’ve derived some value from them. Small business is extremely fascinating to me and I will soon have a firsthand view of its inherent challenges.

I think it would be remiss if I didn’t provide some commentary on my working experiences here at Lenovo. I’ve worked with some amazing people around the globe and can wholeheartedly say that a tremendous amount of effort, dedication and passion goes into bringing you every ThinkPad we produce. It’s easy to overlook the human element behind inanimate objects and tools, but I can safely attest to the fact that each ThinkPad notebook you purchase has been touched by many people, in many different ways and is imbued with the unique personality of each one. Our superb quality numbers and multiple awards for product excellence are proof that these people are top-notch, something that generally escapes the attention of people outside the company. Of course, I have first-hand experience with them and am using this opportunity to tell you that and to thank them for helping me learn and grow professionally.

The PC industry is a challenging one and places many demands on all who are associated with it. As an example, I’ve worked on 6 different products in the three years that I’ve been here. It’s because of this fact that I’ve had very little time to devote to Roaring Mouse, something I regret a great deal. Now, though, I’m joining the ranks of those of you I’ve been writing for and I am very excited to be a part of the small business community.

I thank everyone at Lenovo who trusted me enough to be a public face for the company for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you, I wish great joy to my soon-to-be ex-co-workers and I wish all you small business owners the greatest success.

P.S. If you’re on Twitter and want to follow my progress, I’m @bming1. Take care and all the best.

brandon..

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 1:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.