Books
Amazon has this cool feature that allows people like me to yak about books I like. I could do that anyway, but Amazon gave me some cool little bits of code and pictures of book covers to make my list look real official. You can click on the hyperlinks and go right to Amazon. If you order one of the books, I get a gift certificate for a free bookmark or something.
Travel
I like to travel. That's a good thing because I've been a consultant for a very long time, which means I make my living someplace else . . . [go]
Pictures
People have asked about the photographs on this web site. I took them. None of this has anything to do with business, but then again, maybe it does . . . [go]
Contact
You can reach me at:
Kevin Hoffberg
111 West John Street
Suite 302
Seattle, WA 98119
206.281.9397
If you'd like to receive a newsletter from me, you can do that using the box below. If you want something with some extra umph, click HTML.
I am a consultant, author, speaker, serial entrepreneur, unrepentant ranter, and sometimes agent provocateur.
Actually, it would be more accurate to say that those are the things I do. I also go nearly everywhere with a camera and am obsessed with trying to see—and thereafter photograph—moments of serendipity, synchronicity, silliness, humor, juxtaposition, humanity, and creativity in unexpected places. I think the pieces all fit together. But I digress. You’re trying to figure out if you want to do business with me, not glimpse my inner journey.
It’s fair to say that I have an attitude about things, and certainly a style in how I think, write, and speak. Don’t mistake the sometimes familiar, breezy tone for a lack of earnestness about the business of meaning and the meaning of business. I am serious about my work and have serious thoughts about work. In fact, I think the work we do, whatever it is, can and should be enobling.
I’ve done a lot of consulting over a nearly twenty-five year career. I’ve worked closely with a couple of hundred executives at a hundred or so organizations both big and small. Some of them--like Wells Fargo Bank, FleetBank Microsoft, Bank of America, Sony, Colgate, Young & Rubicam, Sears, CIBC, Arthur Andersen (long, long before Enron), Ernst & Young, KPMG, and Colonial First State (Aus)--you’ve probably heard of. Many others you probably haven’t. None of them ever asked for their money back, and most would even tell you that the work I did made a difference. Sometimes even a big difference.
Over those nearly twenty-five years, I’ve written and conducted sales, service, marketing, customer experience, coaching, and leadership training programs, workshops, and seminars that thousands of people have been through. More than that have heard me speak or have read what I’ve written on those topics.
During that time I’ve worked as a lone wolf, worked in partnership with others, started some companies, and worked for companies that others started., I briefly worked for an Internet incubator during the dot.com craziness, thus heeding the siren call of instant riches that gathered in so many others. I’m not proud of that one, but it was a fascinating experience.
Long ago I helped found a wonderful company called Lion Coffee in Honolulu Hawaii. This was back before coffee was king and when Starbucks could only see as far at the Puget Sound. As a measure of my then youthful impetuosity, I left long before Lion became the success it became, so in all honesty, I get a founder credit, but Jim Delano, the guy who really started and funded the company, was the real star.
More recently, I took a swing through the corporate world as Chief Knowledge Officer of Onyx Software. I actually had a slightly less grand title on my business card, but nobody was using the CKO title so I took it. Nobody fought me for it so I kept it.
I now occupy myself on behalf of a select group of clients doing projects of the kind described elsewhere on this site. I write, I speak, I pepper an unsuspecting world with my rants and screeds, and generally do what I can to make work coincide with the great intentions and aspirations most of us carry with us when we're not trying to earn a living.
Why am I Here?
"Here," meaning this web site, not why am I on this earth. Much bigger question than we want to get into just now.
I guess you can call this a “guru site.” That’s what I call the online cyber-shrines to the various luminaries, consultants, authors, pundits, and ranters and ragers put on the Web to advertise their presence, precepts, perceptions, and powers. So count me in.
Most of the guru websites I’ve visited are unspeakably boring. They’re barely worth visiting the first time, yet alone book-marking for a return visit. The ones for big consulting firms I find even worse. After about thirty seconds, I usually find myself asking: Where is the thoughtfulness? Where is the art? Where is the verve? The vivid prose? The deep insight? The penetrating observations? The human voice? Why am I here? Why are they here? Sometimes I can figure out what they say they do, but who are they really and why does it matter?
My name has appeared on web sites that fit this general description, websites that are usually cloaked in serious sounding words and mighty images of corporate mission, vision, and a raft of offers that are to be taken very, very seriously. Truthfully, I think the pomp is silly and user experience worse. So rather than add to the blah blah, I decided to just let it rip: pure, unedited, unvarnished Kevin Hoffberg point of view.
Many of the people I’ve talked to about websites say you should be brief, clear, and get to the point. People just want the facts. I disagree. I think the real problem is that there too often is no point. Absent a point, the facts just have to do.
I have lots to say and don’t mind saying it. This website is one of my platforms.
Send mail to
webmaster@kevinhoffberg.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2002-2004
Kevin Hoffberg
Last modified:
05/03/06