Daily Research

Dailies in the movie business are the shots of film produced that day.  Every day the director finishes shooting, the film is developed (it is instantaneous with digital cameras) and the director reviews the shots of the day.

Inspired by this I have formed "Dailies" that are web sites I visit every day at least once.  For news, information, research, or just to keep generally informed, I visit a few dozen sites every day.  RSS feeds, Google Alerts, and more also assist me with this process.

For Mobile Product Management in Retail Grocery I've started reading roughly 39 sites every day on topics ranging from Payment, to general Retail, to Mobile, to Technology, to Grocery, and more.  I'll pull from these every week to provide you with the very best from my "dailies".  Here are just a few of those sites:

http://www.realcleartechnology.com/

http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/

http://www.fmi.org/

http://www.zdnet.com/

http://www.xconomy.com/

http://www.retailonlineintegration.com/

http://supermarketnews.com/

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/marketing-daily/#axzz2QkYCECHW

http://chainstoreage.com/

http://www.groceryheadquarters.com/

and...

http://thenextweb.com/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

The History of J.W. Gant

TopSource, LLC.

The newly created Senior Manager of Mobility Products position at TopSource is my most recent role and has provided me the motivation to create this blog.  My efforts will provide TopSource, and parent company Topco, with a Product Management capability to enable software development on multiple platforms and will result in a suite of products to further the company's strategic initiatives.

First, a moment about Product Management.

Anything that will be released to the public for consumption may be considered a product and the art & science of managing the lifespan of a product is the role of a Product Manager.  Marketing inputs, commonly through a Product Marketing role, will inform the shape of the product and various other pieces of the puzzle.  The Product Manager will work with production teams, internal and external, and project teams along with marketing and creative elements, to manage the various processes that result in a product launch and continued efforts post-launch until product retirement.

In the technology world it has become increasingly common for professionals with both an engineering background and a MBA to become Product Managers.  My background is perfectly suited to create this new functionality in TopSource and I'm very excited for the opportunities presented here.  The result in just a few short months will be mobile applications to fulfill the needs of our members.  Fun, fun, fun.

Here is a quick view of my work and education history from High School to present:

• United States Air Force
• Emergency Medical Technician
• The Florida State University
• BS Software Engineering, Minor Mathematics
• Thagent, Inc.
• Owner and Computer Consultant
• Engelhard, Inc.
• Developer Analyst
• ICS
• Development Manager and Consultant
• Purdue University - Krannert School of Management
• MBA
• MFS Investment Management
• Business Side Technology Guru, Project, Product, Problem, etc.
• Compass Solutions
• Project Manager for the Health Information Exchange, Affordable Care Act
• MerchantWarehouse.com
• Product Manager for a suite of mobile solutions and for Genius ITX Payment solution
• TopSource, LLC
• Senior Manager, Mobility Products

Next we will get in to the fun stuff.  For my current role I am daily researching dozens of web sites to stay up to the minute on concerns related to technology, mobile, retail, grocery, marketing, and more.  Sharing the most relevant pieces I find is the purpose of this blog.

Regards,

J.W. Gant

Why the Thagent Blog?

Hello,

What is Thagent and why call this the "21st Century" blog?

Thagent is a play on words/names that I have used extensively in my personal and professional life.  As a joke I have sometimes referred to myself in the 3rd person: "The Gant".  When looking for a company name and a possible web site URL this came to mind and I swapped two letters to transform "The Gant" in to "Thagent" which I used when I had a small consulting company in the early 2000s.

The portion referring to "21st Century" is both a reference to my love of history and conveys the idea that this blog is about modern concerns in the Information Age we are all living in today.  The breadth conveyed by that is broad by design: technology, current events, business considerations and thinking especially as it relates to my career, and more.

Welcome to the Thagent 21st Century Blog.

Best Regards,

J.W. Gant