My wife loves Howard Stern.  In fact if I were to guess one of her top 5 tragedies in life, I would undoubtedly be correct in saying it would be Stern’s retirement from radio.  So what does the self-proclaimed King of All Media have to do with IT?  Let me paint you a picture about why this guy should be in Service Management.  Better yet, watch his movie, Private Parts, or listen to him on the radio.  Ignoring all the tasteless humor and complete craziness of Stern’s radio show, one admiring trait is that Howard Stern is completely direct and honest.  In fact, one would say that he makes his life transparent and he almost lovingly talks about it every chance he gets (the joys of being self-indulgent).  So once again, what does this have to do with IT Service Management?  The way Stern runs his talk show is pretty much the epitome of a successful IT Service Improvement initiative.  He’s direct in how he talks, he’s transparent in showing his flaws (as well as what he does well), he’s very vocal in making sure others understand what he says, he isn’t afraid to go against cultural thinking, and most importantly, he really goes out to make “the business” successful.  I love that last trait; he goes out to make the business successful.  On the surface it may look like he goes out to ruin the business, racking up FCC charges and testing the moral humor of management.  Yet, Howard Stern is probably one of the most influential and successful characters in radio history.  He’s the first person to have top shows concurrently in both LA and New York, he’s had up to 20 million loyal (and they can be extremely loyal as I found out from my wife) fans, and every market he’s entered he’s gone out and been successful.  This includes other media besides just radio.  And how is this guy so successful and how does this translate to making the business successful?  He simply gives people what they want.  So you may not like his humor, but apparently about 20 million Americans out there do, and if no one really did like Howard Stern then he would have been out of the radio industry years ago.  The radio business really survives by advertisements.  Advertisements thrive on people paying attention (which is why Facebook is making a killing).  So if no one paid attention, advertisers wouldn’t like it and whatever is trying to get attention (Facebook, Google, Hulu, Stern, etc.) simply wouldn’t survive long enough to make a living.

So let’s recap; why is Stern successful?  1.  He understands his job in the most simplistic manner possible and judges success objectively (by the numbers).  2.  He’s direct.  3.  He’s transparent.  4.  He’s vocal.  5.  He gives people what they want instead of what he thinks they want.  I attended the itSMf Fusion 10 conference last month and these were all common traits of successful IT Service Improvements.  This just goes to show, love him or hate him, what makes Stern successful will make future ITIL or ITSM initiatives successful.  All I can say about that is, “hey now.”

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Started working in IT in 1999 as a support desk analyst as a way to help pay for food during college. Studied Electrical Engineering for two years before realizing biochemistry was more fun than differential equations, and so ultimately graduated with a Biology degree in 2006. Having (reluctantly) failed at getting accepted into dental school, embraced working in IT and has gone broke becoming an ITIL Expert. Likes to jog, sing camp songs, quote Mel Brooks movie lines and make dumb jokes and loves working for an Israeli tech company where December 25th is a regular work day.