CrowdSPRING won a Stevie Award in The 2009 American Business Awards, and Ross Kimbarovsky will chair the judging committee for the New Products & Product Management categories in the 2010 ABAs.

What book are you currently reading?
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande. The book is focused on the medical industry, but I’m intrigued by the central premise: that there’s far too much information today for a person to keep organized in their head.

What was the last movie you saw, and would you recommend it?
James Cameron’s Avatar (at an IMAX, in 3D). I highly recommend it.

What is your favorite sport or hobby?
I love soccer and basketball (I play both poorly). I also love music, reading, and chess. I used to play 100 games per week online (but far fewer since starting crowdSPRING).

Who is your favorite historical figure?
That’s a tough question—there have been many remarkable people that could easily be my favorite historical figure. I would put Albert Einstein in my top five.

Who is your favorite living person?
Aside from my family­—Nelson Mandela.

If you could choose another profession, what would it be?
Teaching. It’s a great joy to help kids learn new things.

What quality or qualities do you most value in your business associates?
I want my business associates to be honest, dependable, transparent, and driven.

What do you think is the worst bad habit to have at work?
Gossip. It’s a huge waste of time, and unlike other leisure activities, which can contribute to team-building, gossip can be extremely destructive.

Is there anything you'd like to improve about your own work practices?
Many things! For example, while I’ve learned to work efficiently, I look for ways to improve my decisions so that I always focus on the most important priorities.

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To begin the year, we look at a Stevie Award winner from 2009 that may well impact your business in 2010.  Quantivo, of San Mateo, California, won the Stevie Award for Best New Service of the Year for its on-demand behavioral analytics in the 2009 International Business Awards.  Here we look at how this low-cost, high-speed service is revolutionizing Business Intelligence(BI).
 
How can a company be “cool” and “hot” at the same time?  These—along with “disruptive” and “revolutionary”--are just some of the adjectives being applied by industry analysts to Quantivo’s on-demand Behavioral Analytics offering.

Quantivo describes its service as combining “powerful innovations to smash the barriers between managers and their customers’ behavior” by providing insights that support smart business decisions. The service enables consumer-centric companies to get a rapid understanding of the latest behavioral patterns exhibited by their customers online or offline, for sales, marketing, or web interactions.

The brainchild of co-founders Paul O’Leary, CTO, and Brian Kelly, CEO, Quantivo was officially launched in September 2008, when the company was invited to DEMO, a premier launching pad for emerging technologies.

Launching a new on-demand behavioral analytics service into a market dominated by few but large players was not easy, but in just a few months Quantivo had already secured customers that included well-known brands like Cisco/WebEx and Orchard Supply Hardware.

In addition to the Stevie Award, Quantivo has received several industry awards and recognitions for its technology. Gartner, Inc., the world’s largest and leading information technology research firm, named Quantivo a “Cool Vendor” in March 2009, a prestigious nod that recognizes the most innovative vendors and products. The Silicon Valley Business Journal awarded Quantivo the Emerging Technology Award in December 2008 as Silicon Valley’s hottest up-and-coming Cloud Computing company.

"The Stevie Award further validates Quantivo's disruptive impact on the business intelligence status quo," said Brian Kelly, CEO of Quantivo. "Our revolutionary combination of behavioral analytics and cloud computing continues to challenge traditional thinking around the speed, cost, and usability of Business Intelligence. From web analytics to general business intelligence, Quantivo truly is the 'best new product' to innovate in this space in a very long time."

Blogs, or web logs, are all the rage these days. Each month in this space we'll point you to several blogs and web sites that we think might be of interest to you.

Oxfam America: As a global organizer of emergency assistance programs, Oxfam is provided much-needed assistance to the people of Haiti. See what they are doing and how you can help.
DeepPeep: Still in Beta, this site helps you discover the entry points to content in Deep Web (aka Hidden Web) sites, including online databases and Web services.
New York Times: Owners of the New York Times may be about to charge for this site, so make the most of it while it is still free.
Great Leadership: Opinions and information on leadership and leadership development from Dan McCarthy.