02 Feb 2023
By Allen
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Reimagining Your Brand for a New Vision and Mission

Reimagining Your Brand for a New Vision and Mission

Business, Websites,
Sometimes we start with a good plan and later get a better plan. That may mean renaming and rebranding your business or non-profit. I've been there with my own business and worked for businesses that went through the process. I'm helping a non-profit through this process now. It takes a lot of planning to do well. Naming and Re-naming In grad school, I was fascinated with naming and wrote a marketing paper about "The Art of Semonemics." I've got it on a 3.5 floppy disk somewhere. Semonemics comes from Greek "Semon" for sign and "nemeon" to appoint. It is the…
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01 Dec 2021
By Allen
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Retire Early, Find Purpose (Part 2)

Retire Early, Find Purpose (Part 2)

Featured, Ministry, ,
In Part 1, I talked about retiring early. It is a matter of planning, math, and a little psychology of delayed gratification.  Now, the work of finding your purpose takes some introspective digging with questions like: If you knew you could not fail, what would you do? If money was no object, where would you invest your time and energy? What accomplishment are you most proud of and why?  How or where could you do that again? What is the one thing you cannot NOT do? Each of these questions is a variation on a theme of finding what drives…
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03 Apr 2018
By Allen
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How to get started with data analysis

Business, ,
I recently heard Paul Young, author of "The Shack" say that behind each of his books was a question.  I just finished a meeting with an executive and one of the questions he asked was “How do companies start with data analysis?"  We talked about that and other data topics, so I wanted to sum it up. Companies will get into data analysis when they have problems answering three basic questions: Where have we been? Where are we now? Where are we going? The first of these, “where have we been?” is asked when a Company needs to see their…
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23 Oct 2015
By Allen
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Allen Speaking at InnoTech – FREE Tickets!

Allen Speaking at InnoTech – FREE Tickets!

Business, Microsoft SQL Server, , ,
        November 3, 2015 Featuring This Session from Cognitive Information: Return on Data   Learn the basics of Business Intelligence, Big Data and getting return on the data in your company, with Allen Smith, MBA, MCTS, Business Intelligence Specialist, Cognitive Information, Inc.   CLICK HERE to register, and use discount code: SPKR  and receive complimentary admission to InnoTech Oklahoma*. OPENING KEYNOTE ANNOUNCED  Opening Keynote: 8am The Internet of Everything Featuring Leah Lewis, Managing Director of Cisco’s Public Sector Consulting Services and an Internet of Everything / Smart+Connected City Strategist And You Won't Want to Miss These Other Great Sessions:  Case Study: Seagate’s…
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15 Oct 2015
By Allen
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Startup Super Powers You Need

Startup Super Powers You Need

Business,
In November Cognitive Information will celebrate 9 years in business. This is quite an accomplishment considering that x% of new companies fail in the first year. In my recent presentation about 'So You Want to Be a SQL Consultant' we discussed the challenges of starting a company. In this article, I give an update on challenges and successes through the years. Power of No - Say yes to the things in your business that only you can do and say "No!" or "Not Now" to the other things.  Know where you need to spend your time and where you should…
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08 Oct 2014
By Allen
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Time Value of Data

Time Value of Data

BI/DW Projects, Featured, , ,
The concept of 'Time Value' of data and the associated costs of data are a segment of the 'BI Basics' session which always brings up a lot of discussion at SQL Saturday.  Here, I will expand on the discussion and hope you will join in below.  This session was given at SQL Saturday in Oklahoma City and Kansas City and can be downloaded here. My background is in economics with a good bit of finance thrown in. In Economics, we often look at markets in terms of supply and demand curves. In Finance studies, the 'time value of money' is a…
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13 Sep 2014
By Allen
1 Comment
SQL Saturday #300 Kansas City, MO 2014

SQL Saturday #300 Kansas City, MO 2014

Microsoft SQL Server,
This is my second year at SQL Saturday in Kansas City.  I thoroughly enjoy the people and of course the BBQ Crawl.  This year my hands down favorite was Q39.   Of course that's not what your'e here for, so here is the synopsis and download for the BI Basics session.  This slide deck has been updated since SQL Saturday in Oklahoma City. Session Outline: This session will you chart the waters through the sea of Business Intelligence (BI) options. IT departments need tools to turn data into useful information for users. Instead of ROI, this session talks about Return on…
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