Google respondsto the buzz created by Eric Schmidt’s March comments on click fraud today (finally). Most everyone suspected that the comments (”let clickfraud happen”) were taken somewhat out of context, but I hope that they pursue fraud faster than they pursued making an official post about this statement. Granted, the comments have only recently begun to pick up attention, but perhaps they should have taken a more proactive stance of assuring advertisers and others in the industry of their position on fraud before comments like this could be taken as an economic policy of the company. Damage and harm to reputation and brand can easily occur as a result of these sorts of memes spreading, even if they were taken out of context…

The PMP exam is big on terminology. These are the basic Earned Value Terms you need to know. If you are studying to pass the PMP exam you should know these by heart and be able to derive them in case you are heartbroken. They really are fairly simple. In order from first to last:

BAC = Budget at Completion (Project budget)
AC = Actual Cost of the Work Performed
EV = Earned Value
EV = Budgeted Cost of the Work Performed
EV = % complete times BAC
PV = Planned Value
PV = Budgeted Cost of the Work Scheduled
CV = Cost Variance
CV = EV – AC
CPI = Cost Performance Index
CPI = EV/AC
SV = Schedule Variance
SV = EV – PV
SPI = Schedule Performance Index
SPI = EV/PV
EAC = Estimate at Completion
EAC = BAC/CPI
ETC = Estimate to Complete
ETC = EAC – AC
VAC = Variance at Completion
VAC = BAC – EAC

Note that the acronyms are slightly different from what was used a few years ago and is still widely used by old timers. PMI simplified the terms by dropping a letter here and there. The fundamentals are the same though.

Some business coaches feel that their job is to lead their clients to a conclusion. These are the business coach types who come from the “helping” professions, including psychology, psychiatry, sociology, human resources, and so on. The client asks, “What do you think I should charge for this product?”, and the coach replies, “I think that’s something you should consider.”
Then there are the business coach types, like those at Quantum, who are more directive.

Can you imagine a football coach asking a player, “what do you think?”

We get paid for our advice. We get paid to have an opinion. Clients pay a fair amount of money for this advice and opinions. The right answer is worth a lot to them. We think they deserve a straight one.

Few people can claim to have become self-made millionaires three years after starting their own business – fewer still in the notoriously competitive world of the internet.

But Pierre Omidyar, was only 28 when he produced the first version of eBay, a company originally called Auction Web. French-born Omidyar had shown entrepreneurial tendencies before, starting an e-commerce company specialising in pens, but it was the simple idea of an online auction site that paved the way to riches.

Yet Omidyar, rather like Friends Reunited founders Steve and Julie Pankhurst, was blissfully unaware of what he was unleashing. He placed a page on his website to help his girlfriend trade her Pez candy dispensers with other people that collected, er, Pez Candy dispensers. When other people started advertising other, sometimes less ridiculous items, he started receiving payments for the privilege and the first stirrings of an empire were felt.

eBay – named after Omidyar’s consulting firm Echo Bay, a name already registered on the web – was profitable within a year, but it was its stock market flotation in 1998 that turned him into a tycoon. He still owns roughly $8bn of eBay’s stock market value, although it is now run by Chairman Jeffrey Skoll and President Meg Whitman.

In 2004, Forbes estimated his wealth as $8.5bn. But Omidyar is no simple businessman, ready to luxuriate in the trappings of wealth. He has vowed to donate all but 1% of his income to philanthropic causes, mainly helping those less privileged than himself, particularly those in the third world, onto the path to financial success. A devotee of 18th century Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, he is a great believer in business as a force for good in the world.

Realising that the basic principle of eBay – putting strangers in touch with a mutual interest in doing so, in this case to buy and sell things – is transferable to other sectors, he plans to expand into other areas. He has already begun this with the purchase of Meetup, a community website that helps people with shared interests get in touch.