The Essential CEO Tool

For an entrepreneur, not "carrying" a Blackberry is just stupid. A lot of business people and start-up CEOs think they save money by not having them.  Many CEOs have adopted, but a lot still are on the fence 5 years after the Blackberry's introduction.

Time is awasting.   A Blackberry is just a tool so that instead of making a 5-10 minute phone call to an assistant or an associate or a customer, oftentimes a 1 sentence or one word email response from a wireless Blackberry is plenty.  The time one saves avoiding playing the voice-mail retrieval game is worth it alone.

My estimate is that an hour or two everyday can be saved, and that's money in the bank. It has been saving me at least 40 hours a month for years now.   Complete return of investment is about a 2-3 days, a week at the most, by my estimate, if you value your manager's time to the extent that you pay them.  And on the intangible side, it's amazing what happens to your credibility when within minutes you can respond to a key customer, manager, board member or investor.

I've contemplated making all our CEOs carry a Blackberry as part of our term sheet, no joke. I know that might sound harsh, as you might think that I require entrepreneurs to be working all the time. That's not the case, and I don't expect my portfolio company entrepreneurs to be responding to emails by me at all hours of the night, weekends or holidays. I just want them to work smarter, more efficiently, get more done, including more sleep and seeing their families. A happy and rested entrepreneur is a productive one and will make investors more money in the end, as they will make better decisions.  I understand that the average white collar worker spends an hour plus at their desk answering email.  If they can answer that email in a shorter form in quick bursts on their commute, during a lull at work, a conference or on their way down the elevator, better use can be had for that office time.  I'd rather have the CEO or manager sleep an additional hour or relax than waste his time answering emails at his desk.

I know a lot of people who think their snazzy PalmOS Treo or PocketPC PDA is better, but frankly, it ain't.  The email is not instantly available, something I believe Blackberry has a patent on, which dramatically cuts down on these other units' utility.   [Note: comment below, which I appreciate, suggests that's I am incorrect on this for those with Exchange Server and use Treos, but I still like the Blackberry.]  Don't get confused and waste time worrying about which unit to get-- just go with Blackberry or it's equivalent.  Even if you don't want to spring for a server, it's better just to run it from your computer.  If your system admin can't handle it, for great outsourced service, try Mi8 or ASPOne.

So please, do your investors and yourself a favor this holiday season and start the new year with a Blackberry for you and your team, especially those that travel or commute.