Why you should have a corporate blog?

I guess this is one of the most blogged about topic. But I guess, I'll post my comments too here which I incidentally sent to my colleagues urging them to blog on our corporate blog

Now why blog and what you can blog.

First, the Whys

1. A blog is our company profile out in the world-wide-web, not the lengthy text we write in the content.

2. A blog reflects our company’s attitude and work-culture.

3. A blog creates a better first impression with prospective clients.

4. Blogging compels you to be more creative, at all times.

5. Blogging changes you. It changes you by letting you introspect when you look at your own posts.

6. Blogging makes you a better communicator . It forces you to be clear. If you write something that's confusing, you failed to communicate to your visitors.

7. Blogging is documenting your ideas and opinions. In other words, blogs give rise to new ideas that can be built as products !

8. A blog is a better tool to find customers and employees.

9. Blogging lets you be more open , so it lets you collaborate better with your team.

Then, the Whats

If the above reasons are compelling enough, blog about the following

1. New technology or new development in the technology you work on.

2. Limitations and issues in any tool/framework/language you use.

3. Tips and tricks in any tool/framework/language.

4. How to improve Design and Application Usability

5. Customer Behaviour.

6. Day-to-day issues and how to solve them

7. Learnings from different aspects(anecdotes, project implementations, client interactions etc)

8. New ideas

9. Everything else not listed above

Policies and Guidelines

I have come across various establishments that drive a customer crazy(me being one of them) by uttering the words "it's not our policy to.."

Policies are created to guide any action taken by an organization and avert any outcomes not in favor of the company. They are essential too. But there's the catch. Policies look good when you are aiding the customer or for a better example, protecting a customer's information like the privacy policies of websites that ask for your personal info. But they are dreadful when policies rather than helping a customer , irritate him.

I remember when I had an issue with customer care for my cell phone. It suddenly stopped functioning and as it was under warranty I gave it for repair at the service center. They said it was a bit complex and sent my phone to their head office in another city. Even after 3 weeks, I got nothing, not even a response after continuously calling the service center. Irritated, I took my case with the cell phone company's customer care. They escalated it 6 times but nothing happened. Finally, I asked the cust care lady to let me talk to some senior personnel to enquire what's wrong. But she wouldn't let me. ,All she said was that it's not their policy to provide contact information of required personnel and gave the same recorded reply that my cell was not working(which as if I didn't know).
She didn't know the root cause nor she let me know it. Whoaa! If you don't know the issue and you can't let me deal with it, who is going to solve it??
As a last resort, I had to threaten to sue them to get a new phone as they couldn't repair it.

I guess some policies are meant to be more of a guideline rather than a strict adherence to the book. One cannot have irate customers and think of doing good business.

Partners and Associates

When it comes to startups, your partners shouldn't your subordinates or your superiors. There is bound be an unknown , unacknowledged gap that neither can fill in. It again may boil to a situation similar to your old office where one passes the decisions and the other does it without question.

But startups need conflicts. Conflicting ideas, conflicting ways of implementation but the same principles and passion and urge to be successful. Conflicts that will weed out the unwanted stuff and let only the most wanted and most useful things remain.
And those conflicts will be less discomforting when the people involved have a camaraderie and less ego over those conflicts like friends, colleagues, classmates or even a mentor-mentee but if you've shared a boss-assisstant relation, it could get pretty difficult.