Make them stay

Back in September 2003, I wrote about the Driveway Effect and suggested that story-tellers (marketers) look for ways to engage their customers "just a little bit longer."

I recently had the opportunity to share lunch with a friend at a place in Nashville that takes this concept to the ultimate extreme. My friend invited me to have lunch IN a Harley Davidson dealer's showroom.

Boswell's is one of the oldest Harley shops in the country. The place is packed with gorgeous motorcycles and all the assorted paraphernalia that goes with the Harley lifestyle. What sets them apart is the incredible lunch counter they've shoe-horned into a side room. On any given day, the place is jammed with people waiting for tables. While they wait, friendly sales people engage them in conversation about the bikes.

It is one of the strangest and most organic sales environment I have ever seen. It's different and it just makes sense. I went in expecting a good lunch and came out having spent about 20 minutes talking to a salesman about how cool it would be to own a Harley.

I have no hard evidence, but I'll bet these guys sell bikes to a bunch of first-time owners.

My only suggestion to them would be to find a way to collect names of folks who visit and use that to follow up. They could even hide behind a "Birthday Club" at the lunch counter as a way to establish long-term relationships with potential buyers.

Patriot Act - Chinese Version

From a column in today's (12/30/2005) New York Times:

With more than 100 million users, the Internet is booming in China. The American Web giants Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have all grabbed a piece of the lucrative Chinese market - but only after agreeing to help the government censor speech on the Web.

In providing portals or search engines, all three companies are abiding by the government's censorship of certain ideas and keywords, like "Tiananmen massacre," "Taiwanese independence," "corruption" and "democracy."

Most foreign news sites are blocked. This year, Yahoo even supplied information that helped the government track and convict a political dissident who sent an e-mail message with forbidden thoughts from a Yahoo account; he was sentenced to 10 years in jail. [emphasis added]

Sounds like China's own version of the Patriot Act. Or, is it the other way around?

'scuze me, can I recharge my book in your socket?

Mike Hyatt, the CEO at Thomas Nelson Publishers has a gloriously foolish post about the future of publishing, as he sees it.

It's a good read, not necessarily because of the specifics realted to publishing, but as an example of the need to plan for the destruction of your successful present in order to build a successful future.

As you read Mike's post keep in mind that the more precise you are in your prediction of the future, the greater chance you have of being wrong.

Specifics are not the important thing here. I salute him for opening the door to a frank discussion of his industry's tomorrow.

Ooops, I poured Coke in my Starbucks cup

Have you ever made the mistake of thinking you were reaching for a glass of Coke and grabbed the day-old Starbucks instead?

Coca-Cola's latest concept drink marries the two flavors into something they're calling Coca-Cola Blak.

When you need to make a change you can do a different thing OR do a thing differently. Into which of these categories would you place Coca-Cola Blak?

Different thing?
Thing done differently?

Oxymoron

Received a spam email today offering a new "soft" Viagra tablet.

Hmm -

To be, or not to be - secular or religious?

This piece at AdAge.com got me thinking about this paradox of secular vs religious observances of the season we celebrate during December.

Tyson Foods is taking steps to include faith-based messages in it's marketing mix, while others are moving toward a decidedly secular approach.

As those who are charged with understanding the mind of the consumer, marketing folks should know the answer:

Are our customers becoming more or less interested in spirituality?

The remarkable wish

"Nothing is so common-place as the wish to be remarkable."

Who said it?

If you follow blogs and message boards related to the new CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, you'll see folks who claim Gideon quoted Shakespeare, and there are those who think it was Hotchner.

Checking a handful of websites, I find that the same quote is attributed to Shakespeare and Oliver Wendell Holmes. (I wonder if Holmes' appropriation is considered fair use?)

Regardless of which TV character referenced the quote by Shakespeare or Holmes, I'm not sure I agree with either of them.

If the wish to be remarkable is common-place, how do we describe the overwhelming shortage of anything remarkable? Mediocrity is common-place. We raise the mundane and average to undeserved heights of honor and cheapen those people, places and things that truly are remarkable.

If everything is a BIG DEAL,
Nothing is a BIG DEAL.

Googling books in the "TiVo Culture"

The debate continues and gets increasingly intense between Google and those who write, publish and sell books.

The search engine folks want to make digital copies of entire books so they can offer "fair use" portions on their web site.

The authors and publishers contend that copying entire books would violate copyright laws, and could lead to future misuse beyond the stated objective of "fair use."

My advice to the publishers: start swimming, or you'll sink like a stone.

Legal questions aside, this is something the consumer will eventually demand and the best course of action for those on the publishing side is to figure out a way to make it happen to their advatage.

Legislation may slow down the advent of digitized libraries, but new laws will never stop the shift in consumer attitudes and desires for the ability to "TiVo" every aspect of their life.

Consumers will want this, and they will have it. Look at the music business for a great example of mistaken trust in the legistative process.

More evidence of the TiVo Culture

Brand managers and marketers have always placed a feather in their cap whenever they find evidence of a consumer changing their lifestyle to fit a product. This has been the ultimate goal; create such a bond with the user that they are willing to change the way they live to use our product or service.

But that wind is changing.

Latest evidence is the story out of my area about the university student who is creating online repositories of retail sale announcements long before the sale ads hit the street.

Read more from the NYT

Score one more point for the TiVo Culture - consumers have one more layer of control over sellers and Dylan's words continue to resonate clearly:

You'd better start swimming, or you'll sink like a stone.

It really IS the 17th

For those who use a Mac and iCal, today is a weird day.

As you know, the iCal icon in the Dock defaults to "17" when the application is closed.

I looked down this morning, saw the "17" and wondered why I had closed the application.

Lesson - Through consistent, subtle repetition, I have been trained to see the number "17" differently.

Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication

That's from Leonardo da Vinci and it's always intrigued me. Simple isn't stupid and complex isn't - necessarily - brilliant.

I've found a delightful podcast from the Australian Broadcasting Company that offers regular discussions on the need for simplicity in a variety of very complex situations.

Presented under the umbrella of Ockham's Razor, you may want to download these 15-minute segments and listen to them as you drive to work. My guess is that repeated exposure to the program may cause you to look for simpler solutions to issues you're dealing with.

Couldn't hurt.

Ockham's Razor Podcast

Words Matter

A story by NBC reporter Roger O'Neill provides a tidbit of hope for those who cringe at the sorry state to which our collective grammar has fallen. According to O'Neill, Fortune 500 companies are spending more than $3 billion a year re-training employees to properly use grammar. He quotes one Roger Peterson:

"How about this expression, 'for all intents and purposes.' What does that mean?" asks Peterson. "[Or] 'at this point in time.' What does that mean? How is it better than saying 'now?' 'That was an awfully nice dinner you just served me.' Well, was it a nice dinner or was it an awful dinner? Make up your mind. We simply, now, must salvage American English."

It's about time.

Words do matter, and not just to grammar snobs. They matter because it takes a bit of time to craft a well-turned sentence and in the extra span of a few minutes - or even seconds - you can actually THINK about what you're saying and present an idea worthy of the reader's attention.

If it's important enough to ask someone to read it - it's worth an extra minute of review.

My pet peave phrase is any with the word combination each and every, as in "A hearty thanks to each and every one of you." One of those words is wasted. If they thank each of us, they've thanked every one of us.

Favorite Drucker quote

"My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions."

Yours?

Innovation is Over-rated

"Nothing in the business world is more overrated than a "good idea". Nothing. I've never gone into an organization anywhere in the world that didn't have - with a little prompting and encouragement - more good ideas than it could possibly use. Indeed, most firms enjoy a surplus - a glut - of good ideas. As a rule, a glut of something makes it less valuable, not more. Economics 101."

Michael Schrage is co-director of the MIT Media Lab's eMarkets Initiative. I found this piece in the Australian edition of CIO.

Schrage makes an excellent case for his argument that resistance to change is far more responsible for corporate inertia, than any perceived lack of "new ideas."

Not having new ideas isn't the problem - having the guts to implement them is.

The whole world is bitchier these days

Tony Long writes for Wired News:

My expectations have been raised to [a] ridiculous level by technology running amok through my heretofore-bucolic existence. I used to be a laid-back guy. Now I'm impatient. I chafe. I get irritable when my gratification isn't instantaneous. And it isn't just me. The whole world is bitchier these days.

I'm not exactly certain how to process this, but Tony strikes a nerve with his commentary on my constant desire for more stuff:

You think technology benefits you because it gives you an easier row to hoe? Bollocks. The ease it provides is illusory. It has trapped you, made you a slave to things you don't even need but suddenly can't live without.

Hmmmm - read more

Weapons of MASHED Destruction

Found this "funny" on a National Park Service website:

Joshua Tree National Park (CA)
PVC Potato Cannons Seized from Scout Troop

On the morning of Saturday, October 29th, park employees received reports of a disturbance from visitors who were camping in the group campsites at Indian Cove Campground. Protection rangers responded. During the subsequent investigation, the rangers confiscated seven cannons constructed from PVC piping which were being used to shoot potatoes into the area of the campground through the use of a gas propellant.

The cannons ranged in size from two to six feet in length and are defined as destructive devices under the California penal code. Other miscellaneous PVC piping, which was used for making the potato cannons, and three five-pound bags of potatoes were also confiscated. A local California Boy Scout troop occupied the site. The site permit holder was issued a violation notice for possession/use of weapons. The Scoutmaster and group leaders were given multiple verbal warnings for disorderly conduct, sanitation/refuse violations, food storage violations, and miscellaneous traffic offenses.

Incestuous Amplification and the California Governator

What happened to Arnold?

Back in January, the California governor's approval rating was at 62% - this week he was handed a decisive kick in the political crotch when all four of his personally endorsed special ballot initiatives went down in flames.

I'm not going to argue the pro and con of the ballot measures, but I can't help but comment on what must have led to the overwhelming failure of Arnold's agenda.

There's only one way a team with such good numbers in January could land so hard and fast in November. They paid FAR too much attention to their own PR.

It's called Incestuous Amplification - when a group of people with similar opinions and interests exclude contrary views they have a tendency to arrive at outrageous conclusions regarding their own beliefs.

It's obvious that Arnold and his team were so caught in their January poll numbers that they stopped listening to anyone who disagreed.

Is there a lesson in this for your organization? If you're not getting REGULAR contrary input - you are destined to join the Governator in a feast of humble pie.

Demand Passion

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a recent seminar session led by Joel Fotinos who directs the religion category at Penguin Putnam, a major US publishing house.

Joel related how he had become frustrated by the lack of risk and excitement he saw evidenced in new book projects being proposed by his editors and those of his colleagues at other publishing houses.

Being a man of intense passion, Fotinos wanted to ignite a similar fire in his team so he told them to:

"go out and find a project about which you are so passionate that you will quit and go somewhere else if we don't [publish] it."

It's not necessary to share details of the results, but one of the projects that came from this Call for Passion is a book that is on track to sell over 600,000 copies in it's first year. By all counts, the book would never have even been written had the editor not been passionate about the project.

In my experience, too many organizations inhibit passion because it can create problems in the corporate environment. Passionate people - by definition - are not "reasonable." They demand that their ideas be heard and acted on. They raise their voices and pound their fists and "make others uncomfortable."

I'm with Joel - we need more irrational and foolishly passionate people on our teams. And the ONLY way you're going to take advantage of what they bring to the table is to DEMAND PASSION.

Godin on long-term perspectives

There's no need for extra commentary to this piece from Seth Godin.

If you or your organization has been suffering from a lack of excitement about the future - click here and read what could be one of Seth's best.

How do these people get to work?

I travel, a lot. Kinko's has become a sort of office-away-from-home for me, and I am always dialing 411 on my cell to find their nearest store. Once 411 connects me to the store, I give them my approximate location and ask for directions from where I am to where they are. It shouldn't be a difficult question - but I am amazed at the number of Kinko's people who have no idea where their store is.

Here's how the conversation went yesterday:

Kinko's, can I help you?
Yes. I am heading north on Whittier from Harbor and need to know where your store is? (Note, the store in on Whittier).
You need directions to the store?
Yeap. I'm heading north on Whittier.
Ah, you'll need to hold on. (click - hold - NO MUSIC)
Kinko's (new voice), can I help you?
Yes, I am heading north on Whittier, from Harbor and need to know where your store is.
You need directions? To the store?
Yes.
Where are you now?
On Whittier, heading north.
Just keep coming, all the way down, it's a long way.
SIGH - What's the damn address?
Of the store? (I am NOT kidding about that one).
YES
Ahh, 16330 - -
At which point I cut him off because I had just driven past the store and now had to make a U-Turn to get back.

My point is: wouldn't it make sense to have some basic directions by the phone? Helping new customers find the store is a key element in getting them to spend money IN the store.

Another thought - shouldn't Kinko's have a database on their website that I could download to my PDA, listing all their locations, phone numbers and street addresses?

It must have something to do with a razor

Haven't had time to read the cover story from this week's TIME, but after looking through the pictures I have concluded that success must have something to do with trimming one's hair and beard very close to the skin. Perhaps the incremental minutes of time saved each morning add up over weeks and months to provide a slight advantage. Just a thought - gotta run, my barber is waiting.

The ultimate TiVo example

If you still have any doubts as to who is in charge of business relationships, hear this:

"I TiVo church every Sunday."

That may sound innocuous, but let me explain. The 37-year-old who told me that wasn't talking about recording and playing back his favorite television preacher. He was talking about the way his family attends a live Sunday morning worship experience.

The church has two services on Sunday morning, with a social time in between. His family is a bit too crazy to get ready in time for the 8:45 start time of the first service and they'd rather not be in church past noon, which is when the later service is dismissed. So they come around 9:15, listen to the sermon, enjoy the coffee time, and then leave after the music in the 10:30 service.

They have designed the Sunday morning experience to fit their lifestyle. They've changed the product to meet their needs.

Brand managers used to get excited when users would alter their lifestyle to fit the product - but we're going to see fewer and fewer examples of that as we move ahead.

Here's the point - if you provide a service or a product and you haven't started to think about how to make it accessible to people on their own terms, you are in danger of losing them to someone who has.

To explore this a bit deeper, check out my comments from October 12.

Breathing "In"

When I started this blog in August 2005, my personal goal was to write something every weekday. My gut told me that frequency and regularity would be key to building a base of habitual readers who would then sneeze the blog to their friends and colleagues.

I stuck to the schedule for the first two months, even posting while on vacation and while taking my daughter to college for Freshman orientation. But, over the past two weeks, I have been less regular and I think it's a type of "inhaling" that's necessary to the creative process.

There are times when we need to stop and allow our souls to catch up; to let the dust settle; to straighten up the garage.

In the biblical story of Creation, even God took a break. The book of Genesis says God rested on the seventh day. God took a nap, so should we.

When was the last time you did something really foolish like stepping away for a few days to organize your sock drawer? How long has it been since your leadership team went on a real retreat? Have you been exhaling from a set of empty lungs?

On the "Tech Bus" - Are you a rider or a driver?

Wired News editor Tony Long writes about the Dark Underbelly of Technology in a recent column.

The blind worship of technology makes me very cranky, indeed. At heart, I'm a wick-and-tallow man, although I freely concede that technological advances have achieved some great things. You can kill your enemy without ever laying eyes on him. You can consume, consume, consume to your heart's delight. You can have a dog without actually taking the responsibility of owning one. You can infect other people's computers with viruses. You can burn a hole in your corneas and drain the color from your flesh by playing video games for a hundred hours every week. And you can blog because everything you say is so interesting it should be shared with everyone. (OUCH)

I can't go all the way with Tony's endorsement of a luddite existence, but his piece did provoke me to wander into an area of thought I'd not been in some time.

Question:

Do we drive technology? Or, are we driven by technology?

Don't be too quick with your answer. Jumping to a conclusion too soon will ruin any chance you have of REALLY enjoying the mental calisthenics this poses?

TiVo to GO

Users of iTunes version 6.0 can now buy - for a buck-ninty-nine - entire episodes of their favorite ABC and Disney TV shows to watch at the leisure - commercial free.

Holy smoke.

TiVo allowed me to watch WHEN it was convenient for me, now I can watch WHERE it's convenient for me.

This is going to kick the crap out of the hotel in-room movie business - among others.

Dylan was right:

"You'd better start swimmin', or you'll sink like a stone."

Wet Fingered Leadership

In his book God's Politics, Jim Wallis offers this tip for anyone wishing to identify a member of Congress on the streets of Washington, DC:

"They're the ones . . . who walk around town with their fingers held high in the air, having just licked them and put them up to see which way the wind is blowing."

Far too many politicians, Wallis writes, come to Washington with plans to affect REAL change, only to discover that it's impossible to make a difference without public support and that wetting your finger is the only way to measure that support.

Now - take a look at the decision process in your own company.

How often are choices made in your organization that simply maintain or enhance the status quo? Is there a chapter in your most recent growth plan that should be titled "Same Stuff - Only Bigger"? Congress is a mess, but it doesn't hold exclusive rights to the practice of wet-fingered leadership.

Wallis is absolutely correct when he writes that substantive change - real change - occurs only when someone stops following the wind and takes steps to "change the wind."

Changing the wind in your company will mean seeking solutions that aren't "Same Stuff - Only Bigger."

If you're an airline - you change the wind by scrapping the hub-based model and flying direct between cities that are close to the most popular destinations.

Changing the wind for a large hospital with extreme over-crowding might mean looking for opportunities to spin off some services to satellite clinics instead of building a bigger facility in the same place.

The owner of a neighborhood retail shop can change the wind by not trying to compete for low prices (with Wal-Mart) and by offering a better selection, more knowledgeable clerks and a warm-inviting atmosphere.

Assignment:

• List a few examples of "wet-fingered" decisions that have been made in your industry or organization.
• Pick one or two and discuss how outcomes might have been different if those involved had "changed the wind" instead.
• Answer this question - When is it OK to use the wet-finger approach?

Let me know how it goes.

Problem solving? Sometimes the best choice is to do nothing

I've been mining some nuggets of wisdom from the web pages of Berkery, Noyes & Co., an investment banking firm specializing in information media.

This is from CEO Joseph Berkery on the subject of setting priorities:

When we commit our time and energy to fixing what isn't working, we risk under-investing in what is. Senior executives rightly pride themselves on the ingenuity and tenacity they bring to their role as problem-solvers. But very often the stronger virtue is courage – the courage to admit that a problem isn't worth fixing, and to face the hard facts of reality. The ability to distinguish opportunity from distraction is partly innate, rooted in the “fight or flight” response on which survival in the natural world so often depends. But successful individuals can train their minds to daily weigh the costs and benefits of fixing a problem or redirecting assets to more profitable pursuits.

What a refreshing thought. Not every problem needs to be fixed. Imagine how much extra time you'd have if you stopped trying to fix everything and concentrated on the stuff that already works.

Unhappy customers are a good thing

I am reading a white paper on the information and media industry written by the investment banking firm Berkery, Noyes & Co., LLC. It's a fascinating look into what could be the future for companies that provide information content such as books, music and news.

I am appreciating the style of the report because it comes from a purely objective perspective. The degree to which these folks understand the future will have a direct impact on the success of their investment clients. There's no rosey-eyed bull**** in this report. In the words of Detective Joe Friday, "Just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts."

One of the ideas I've pulled from the pages is the concept of learning from customers who are not satisfied with your current product offering. Here's a taste:

Customers [have been] relatively passive players in the process, acquiring content as it was packaged and presented to them.
But we see a radically picture today. Users have become active participants. Technology has enabled them to actively select content, to manage it, to use it in different ways, to create it, to add to it, to manipulate it, analyze it, and, importantly, to be a powerful force in distributing it to both mass and highly targeted users.

So?

Take some time to think about how you can make your product or service more like iTunes. Instead of buying the entire CD from you, could you allow your customer to manipulate your content and create their own unique version of it?

Are you ready to give up that much control?

You better be.

Note: The report is lengthy and will take a few minutes to download on some connections.

45-second survey

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Please click here and answer six-easy questions.

Doing so will not enter you in a chance to win some really great prizes, but it will make you eligible for a year's supply of free foolishness.

eComXpo - If you're "different" don't bother

I was pleased to get a complimentary "pass" to the online exhibition and was looking forward to hearing Seth Godin's speech this week at eComXpo - until I received this little notice via email:

We would like to thank you for registering for the eComXpo show to be held October 6-8. We noticed that you register using the Mac Computer. Please note that access to the eComXpo show requires the use of a Windows PC and Internet Explorer version 5.5 or higher. We want to make you aware of this ahead of the show so you can prepare accordingly to access the show and enjoy the Affiliate Marketing experience.

Just a guess, but wouldn't it safe to assume a fair amount of what's being done "on the edge" these days is being done on Macs?

I am disappointed and even a little bit ticked at Seth for offering me something I can't use.

Knowledge is Over-rated

Note: Once a month a select group of clients and friends on 6 continents receive Market Intelligence, a longer edition of my thoughts and advice. Since many of them are now blogging, I've decided to offer it each month here in the Fool's Box, as well.

Market Intelligence - October 2005

Knowledge is Over-rated

Emeril Lagasse and I purchase the same ingredients at our local grocery store and people flock like wolves to his table, but not mine.

John Steinbeck and I have the exact same 26-letter alphabet from which to construct stories and there are entire shelves of books in the library, but not mine.

Both football teams walk on the field with an equal amount if time to play; one wins.

Pianos have 88 keys. Whose would you rather listen to? Norah Jones' or mine?

So what?

The basic ingredients to nearly everything are a collection of commodities. You can distill it all down to sand & gravel, ones & zeros, time & space. Knowledge itself is ubiquitous. We are living in a post-information age when everyone has access to everything.

Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster in Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy (1999-Harvard Business Press) call this the "deconstruction of [traditional] information" channels. They make the point that having information is not nearly as critical as knowing what to do with it.

I'm one of those people who thrive on knowing new stuff. If I don't learn a new thing every day, I feel as though I've been cheated out of a pleasure.

And I don't mind sneezing what I've learned to anyone who'll listen because the knowledge itself isn't worth much more than a pocketful of pebbles. When I pass along knowledge, I haven't given up anything because the real value - the worthwhile intellectual property - exists in my ability to fashion IDEAS from the knowledge I've obtained.

Knowledge, facts, data, ingredients, time, space, experience - are ALL over-rated as something to horde or keep to one's self. Holding on to what you KNOW only gains you an advantage among those who lack the ability to execute new ideas based on the pebbles in their pocket.

Besides, the ingredients are there for the taking, so why waste energy locking them up? If you don't share what you know, someone else will - and they'll reap the benefit of building relationships while you're building bunkers to protect something isn't worth much in the first place.

Exercise:

Step one: Make a list of "ingredients" your organization uses to do what you do. Start with physical things, move to intangibles such as data, talent and time, and finish the list with meta-physical elements such as innovation, relationships and passion.

Step two: Make a similar list for your competitors and then cross out everything that shows up on both lists - or that COULD be on both lists with a little effort or a well-timed staffing change.

Step three: The items you crossed out are the "pebbles." These are things you can easily share without giving away what's really valuable - because they are commodities. So, make plans to stop hoarding the ingredients and concentrate on developing the nuggets of real value that remain.

Until next month,

Jim Seybert

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Weekend Bonus - Consultant Joke

Looking for the ultimate consultant joke?

Here you go.

Thanks to the folks at Guerrilla Consulting for sharing this.

Comment - while looking at the funny pages, pay attention to the legitimate Ads by Google that populate every page. This thing isn't just for laughs. Someone has found a foolishly clever way to generate side revenue from what should be a highly sneezed website.

AOL becomes foolishly healthy

As a counterpoint to my rant about the NYTimes starting to charge for content on their daily headline service, here's a story about AOL taking some steps to get healthier by making nearly all of its content free at AOL.com.

Ironic - I found the story on the NY Times daily headline service. Here's a taste:

Today, though smaller, America Online is not merely alive but defiantly healthy - especially when it needs to be, having recently taken a terrifying but necessary strategic step: making virtually all of its content available free at AOL.com, no subscription required.

When I encourage companies to be foolish, I urge them to consider things that don't make sense. I want them to try something that "only a fool would try" because it's obvious in many cases that their sensible and reasoned approach isn't getting them anywhere. Very few companies hire someone like me to "help them do the same thing over and over again."

Logical ideas usually come from the CFO or the bank - and they're generally always focused on "being smart."

My advice to companies who want to make a difference, who want to experience a difference, is to try something foolish for a change.

It just might work -

Espresso Sessions

My clients invest a lot of time & money in trade shows, I am often called on to help them find foolish new ways to cut through the clutter. Trade shows are a great place to connect with customers, but when it comes to booth design and telling your story, the majority may as well have a big sign that says:

Been There. Done That. Free T-Shirt.

Thanks to johnmoore at Brand Autopsy for an idea that I'm going to craft into something for a client. John attended an event that featured Espresso Sessions.

I am going to suggest to my client that they host a session VERY early in the morning, serve espresso and other high-energy goodies, play loud music, flash bright lights, and demand that people get their brains moving before many of them are even used to getting in the shower.

The foolish starting time - 5:00 or 5:30am - might be impossible for some to accept, but those who do will get such value that they'll be talking about it all day. I may suggest to the client that they repeat it each morning throughout the show, to take advantage of buzz from previous mornings.

This just might work. These shows are jammed with activities and exhibitors are finding it increasingly difficult to schedule time for people to attend presentations - so, why not take ridiculous ideas to their extremes and create a whole new block of time to tell your story.

DJ Ditty - if people won't sneeze it, why bother?

A piece in Information Week suggests that Dell may need to rely on "a bigger campaign" than the WOM effort they've developed to spread news about their latest entrant into the space dominated by Apple's iPod.

Liem Nguyen, spokesman for the Round Rock, Texas, computer maker, said the Ditty, which sells for $99, marked the first time Dell has used a word-of-mouth ad campaign to sell a product. During more traditional product launches, Dell will advertise in print media and catalogs.

But the article says iPod accounts for more than 75% of the market and Dell may need to roll out a more traditional effort to earn attention.

Question:Will spending more dollars on ads that promote a product people are already not talking about, make the product any more likely to get talked about?

Another question: What will it take for a product to unseat the iPod?

Qustion Three: Did they intend for it to be confused with a BIC lighter? Will bringing one of these through Airport Security be a problem?

Pogue praises fools and misfits

From David Pogue's latest column in the NYTimes:

Every now and then, humanity wakes up, looks at itself in the mirror and realizes that it's been wasting a lot of effort doing things the old way just for the sake of tradition. From the caveman who first put a bunch of rolling logs under something heavy, to the genius who packed four times more orange juice onto a truck by condensing it first, history is filled with "Aha!" moments that propel society forward.

So often the people who suggest doing things differently are branded as foolish by traditionalists. Where would we be without the fools, pessimists and misfits who, as Pogue says, "propel us forward."

Julie Chen does things differently

I am rushing out to a meeting at 4:30 in the morning after coming in late from another - so today's post is simple, but nonetheless a HOOT.

Watch the video clip here, then read the blog title, again.

Doing so will provide an all-too telling insight into my own private brand of foolishness.

Back with staid seriousness on Thursday - yeah right.

"Good enough" sucks

I seldom RANT in this space but what the heck is wrong with people who are satisfied with the status quo?

The main thing that separates us from the rest of the herd is our human ability to desire something more than we have. And if that's the truth, anyone who sits on his or her buns and is satisfied with "good enough" is somehow less-than-human.

A good-old-boy preacher from Nashville used a great line during a sermon I heard last year. He was sharing his vision of the future for his church and he said,

"Don't tell me you like the status quo. 'Cuz status quo is just Greek for the mess we find ourselves in."

AMEN and AMEN Brother.

The next person who tells me they aren't interested in exploring new ideas in communicating their message is going to get a slap in the face. "Good enough" certainly isn't.

Man's reach should exceed his grasp. Afterall, that's what heaven's for. -- Robert Browning

Is ALL fair in love and advertising?

Jeff Lang at URBANintelligence wonders if someone might be playing an "effective but despicable" trick on the Technorati search engine in that Burger King was the top search there on Sunday.

Bigger question: If this was the work of a nefarious corporate wonk, is that necessarily a bad thing? Is the purpose of advertising to raise awareness of the product? And, is anything short of immorality fair game? How close would this be to some meta=physical line-in-the-sand protecting consumers from fraud?

Host a foolish party

A local independent hardware store is looking for a new ad agency because the one they've used for a dozen years "doesn't have any new ideas." A gigantic Home Depot just moved into town and the local guy knows he needs to step up and turn loyal customers into evangelists.

What if? -- the local guy looked through his database of 50,000 shoppers and found the top 5 purchasers of GARDEN SUPPLIES and helped them host a "Garden Party" for 20 of their friends?

What if? -- they looked through local building permit files, found 5 people who had recently installed a new deck, and helped them organize a "How To Stain Your Deck" clinic - complete with BBQ and expert training?

What if? -- they reminded local folks of the Free Popcorn they serve every weekend in the store by offering to buy ALL the popcorn for theater movie goers on Friday night - and offered a discount to anyone who came in Saturday with a movie ticket stub?

I was sparked to these ideas by a story written by Jeff Lang on URBANintelligence about a similar program hosted by the New Jersey Nets.

Competing with Home Depot for a franchise in the minds of local folks is going to take more than better radio ads. The hometown guy will never be able to out spend the category killer - but they can out maneuver 'em and take the idea of customer care to wonderfully foolish levels.

For more ideas of taking ridiculous ideas to their extremes (TRITE) see my entry from September 7.

Exercise: Read this to your marketing staff. Ask them to suggest similar ideas for a local restaurant. Car repair shop. Independent bookstore. YOUR company.

Life ain't easy when you're living on the edge

I've had an email dialog going with Jackie Huba at Church of the Customer related to some issues they're facing over the task of launching their podcasts on iTunes. I want to subscribe to them and can't.

It's not a huge problem and they'll have it fixed soon, but Jackie's most recent email was sprinkled with a small amount of frustration and I was reminded of the hassles we all faced back in the early 90s when business started using email.

Do you remember what a pain in the ass it was just to log on to the world wide web? Not to mention the instability and complexity of communication software. (We fired an IT manager over problems he had with Lotus Notes - and there's no way it was his fault).

Here's my point:

The roughness we all experience now and then when dealing with new ideas (or technology) is the price we pay for leading the pack. Being on the edge carries certain frustrations that those further back on the trail will never have the joy of experiencing. These days, I'm off-put when my email server goes down for even a few minutes because it's so rare an occurrence. Just a few short years ago I was amazed when I connected on the first try.

So, as you head into the weekend - raise your glass and toast yourself for foolishly hanging off the edge. When stuff doesn't work the first time, or the second, take heart in knowing that someone is working on a solution to make it easier and you'll soon have new hassles to overcome - which makes it all worthwhile.

By the way: Here's a link to the podcast I was trying to get on iTunes - Church of the Customer Podcast

NY Times should be a bit more foolish

Over the past four years, I have sneezed the NYTimes brand to clients, prospects or colleagues on more than a thousand occasions. I receive a no-charge daily headline service from the Times and quite regularly forward an article to others, which brings the recipient into contact with the NYTimes brand. I am an evangelist for the NYTimes.

But that is about to change.

The Times has decided to launch what they describe as an "exiting" new program, whereby I will be asked to pay $40 a year for a portion of the service I have been receiving at no charge. When I wrote to ask them how this was "exciting" they replied with:

Please understand that the vast majority of our news, features and multimedia will remain free including our Editorials and Letters to the Editor. Additionally, the distinct voices of our columnists will continue to be readily available in the paper edition on newsstands, and through libraries, colleges and universities.

They described the decision to start charging as "prudent" and the new fee as "modest."

Hmmm - I'm not sure it was prudent to make a move that will reduce the number of people reading their material, especially when similar material is still available at no charge from many online sources. Perhaps they should have done something foolish -- make more money by encouraging MORE people to read them online.

If adding fees and making it more difficult to access their content was the "prudent" thing to do, perhaps they should have been a bit less prudent and a lot more FOOLISH.

The future has been cancelled - there is NO tomorrow

Back on July 23, my first-ever blog entry posed this question about the future:

Do you perceive the future as something that you are moving toward? Or, is the future something that is crashing through your living room window?"

In other words: Do your current actions AFFECT the future, or can you only PREPARE for something over which there is no control?

Your answer to that question will influence the way you approach strategic planning. I have heard convincing agruments for both scenarios, and a few in between.

Bernie Urban at URBANintelligence has a delightfully FOOLISH perspective on the future. Here's a sample:

We live in a time when change occurs so abruptly, so violently, so without warning that “the future” as it has been traditionally understood has ceased to exist. We now live in what can only be defined as a volatile present tense. Tomorrow cannot be anticipated in any certain terms.

Here's the full text.

Suggestion: Read this to your executive staff, then pose this question: If Bernie is correct, how would our planning process change? How much of our current plan would be irrelevant, if this is correct?

Is there a vaccine for the IdeaVirus?

The world is not as small as we'd like to think it is.

I have been amazed lately at the number of "trend-aware" people who have no knowledge of the ideas discussed in books such as Purple Cow, Visionary's Handbook, Never Eat Alone and others. I've recently re-read Free Prize Inside and have been using it as a source for some conversations with fellow members of an advisory board on which I serve.

The blank stares I get are a disheartening indication that my colleagues and I can't share the same language when talking about solutions, and I am forced to try and explain principals rather than attack the problems.

Questions and Observations:

• Could it be that some people are somehow inoculated against the IdeaVirus? How can these people, who are well-read and intelligent, not have ANY knowledge of the books I mention above? It's not that they haven't had time to read them, most HAVE NOT HEARD of them.
• I suspect the velocity at which an IdeaVirus travels will diminish over time and eventually grind to a halt. If so, how does the word spread about older ideas that still have value?
• It must be difficult to re-start the spread of a virus that's been halted, because the original sneezers have moved on to something else and probably no longer find the initial idea worthy of passing along.

Oh, the photo above is that of the Norwalk Virus, which is said to be responsible for some nasty adult stomach problems. I tried to find a photo of the actual IdeaVirus, but Seth Godin has it locked up in a tube of hair cream.

Free Consulting

If you don't have time to call your consultant and need a quick answer - use this handy-dandy BS Generator from Dack.com.

As a private practive consultant, I collect jokes about my profession. Please feel free to share your favorites in the Comments Encouraged section, below.

Car makers sponsor Sierra Club convention?

Talk about a wonderfully foolish idea.

I wish I could have been in the room when someone at Honda, Ford or Toyota suggested they sponsor the Sierra Club convention. Or, maybe it went the other way. Can you imagine the look on their faces when the idea of asking automakers to provide funding for an environmentally focused event?

Either way, this was going to the edge and here's how the SF Chronicle described it:

STORY

Suggestion: Read this to your management staff then ask:

• Who benefits most from this odd alliance?


• Whose values were most stretched?


• Will we see more of this?


• What other "foolish" alliances could we see?

In this "Age of Paradox" the best partners are sometimes your fiercest competitors. Don't always look for complete agreement. In this case, both sides brought valuable disciples to the table.

You should think about this event

Just got a brochure in the mail and thought it might be a nice gesture to share this event with people who may not be familiar with it.

The EPM Conference has been on my "must attend" list since my first visit in about 1997 or '98 and this year's line up is going to the best, yet. They have simply out-done themselves, including a keynote address from Sir Bob Geldof.

The focus of this year's conference is On Demand Advertising & Marketing. I appreciate the EPM events because they are intimate and well-programmed. You never feel lost in the crowd. I always come away with more than I expected and always find new ideas or new ways to look at old ones.

What is the most important word in marketing?

Of course, there isn't a definitive answer but this makes for good reading AND discussion with your marketing people.

Thanks to Scott Ginsburg for collecting these and posting them.

See the list

By the way, Scott has worn a name tag for 1,772 days (and counting).

Suggestion: Have your marketing people read this and present an Oral Report to your executive team on what they (the story-tellers) believe to be the most important marketing word as it relates to your organization. You AND they will gain from the exercise.

You'll gain by learning something about their thought patterns and they'll gain by taking time to verbalize ideas that have been banging about in their heads.

Weekend Bonus - Are You at a Loss for Words?

Here is an immensely powerful tool designed to super-actualize contiguous words in an effort to hyper-decrease your word-to-comprehension ratio.

The Jargon Generator.

What a hoot

Thanks to Mike McLaughlin at Guerrilla Consulting.

The phone's ringing - but nobody's home

Motorola and Apple have produced a phone that can carry 100 tunes.

Whoopee

This would have been a huge WOW two or three years ago, but 100 songs seems REALLY skimpy these days - especially in light of the same-day introduction of the iPod Nano, that holds 10 times as many tunes.

Anytime you get consumers saying, "Huh?" You've lost.

Someone at Apple should have "played the fool" and told Steve Jobs to keep this one in his pocket.

Agree? Disagree?

Changing things - one leg at a time

Just when you thought there was nothing new in men's slacks - along come HORIZONTAL corduroys and seersuckers.

The company - Lindland's Cordarounds - is in San Francisco. You can only buy their slacks on line AND they have all sorts of "scientific" data to support their premise that cords and ripples going east to west are superior to those that run waist to cuff.

I don't know about wind resistance or drag co-efficiency, but I do know that they've found a wonderfully "foolish" way to market slacks.

Here's another great example of "do a different thing OR do a thing differently."

Suggestion: Show this to your team -- better yet, PURCHASE a pair of these and wear them into a staff meeting. Then ask - "Is this a different thing? Or, a thing done differently?"

Need some expert advice on "corporate self-esteem"

I represent a manufacturing client that evidences what could be described as "low self-esteem."

They are a relative newcomer in an established industry. Their product line is on par with industry standards and sales to end-users are better than average. The company is doing well.

Dilemma: Their sales team seems to feel a need to over-incentivize retail merchandisers to gain acceptance. They tell me they believe in their product, but their behavior reveals what could be a "fear" that lowering their coop allowance or reducing promotional dollars would change the gatekeeper's opinion of the product and cause them to lose ground.

It's a classic case of "putting out" so the boys will "like you."

Any ideas for me?

• Books?
• Articles?
• Exercises I can run with them?

To get strong, stay small

There are times when the smartest thing you can do sounds foolish.

Midst all the clamor to grow and grow and grow - here are some stories about business decision makers who opted for the opposite, and are reaping the benefits.

Read More

Thanks to John Moore at Brand Autopsy for catching this in the NY Times.

Keep things TRITE

To help my clients imagine a future dramatically different than the present, I often encourage them to play a game I call TRITE.

Take-Ridiculous-Ideas-to-Extremes

The idea is to eliminate inhibitions and "logic" while you push towards the edge of reason to explore "things that are SO crazy, we'd never do them."

The end result is often a bucket of fresh ideas that help the organization stand apart from their competition. So many companies are toeing the line of sameness, that developing an idea to its extremity is almost certain to get you noticed - and more.

Here are some superb examples of TRITE:

Scott Ginsburg has taken the whole "wear a nametag" idea to a brilliantly foolish extreme on his blog Hello, my name is BLOG.

These extremely tall bikes were featured on Church of the Consumer.

In-&-Out Burgers have taken the concept of limited selection to such extremes that they have essentially one menu item - hamburgers - prepared with cheese or without. No chicken, no salads, no fish, no corn dogs. Just a TON of customers.

At the other extreme is The Habit, a small regional hamburger chain in Santa Barbara, distinguished by going TRITE with quality ingredients and customer care. I have never been treated so professionally by a fast food restaraunt's crew.

And then there's the new Hummer Laptop, which is extreme in its virtual indestructability. As posted by Claire on l-e-mental.com.

Suggestion: Share these examples with your leadership team and challenge them to take a ridiculous idea to its extreme edge. Just promise me you won't step back from the cliff and return to your same old boring USP.

Free eBook - While supplies last

Couldn't resist the humor in the headline.

Fans of Seth Godin will appreciate his lastest eBook promotion. Hurry to download the 45-page book, while supplies last.

Who's There?

I predict your predictions won't come true

Predictions that traditional banking would succumb to the ease of conducting one's bank business online, have proven to be off the mark.

Only 44% of Internet users regularly check their bank balances online, according to a piece in last Saturday's New York Times.

Companies that put all their strategic planning eggs in the online banking basket are left with some yolk on their face.

It's a fact - the more precise you are in your predictions of the future, the greater likelihood you have of being wrong. A truly foolish approach would be to "practice the future" and plan for multiple scenarios. Don't fall into the arogant trap of relying on your predictions, and missing the changing currents around you.

I regularly write about developing a "future perspective" and here are a couple of previously published entries.

July 23, 2005

July 24, 2005

Labor Day Bonus - How to Work for an Idiot

Found this on Forbes.com - read and Enjoy

You know, for quite a while, I couldn't read the Dilbert comic strip because I was the "pointy-haired" boss. Thank goodness I got out of that space. Now, the only employee I can mess with is my cat.

Weekend Bonus

Here's a nice entry for the weekend from Claire Hyland at l-e-mental.

Claire is a designer with an edgy-fresh perspective. I don't always agree with her, but I appreciate the different angle at which she slices things. Enjoy.

Don't read this - if you're from California

Hmmm - not sure what to think about something that just happened to me. I'd welcome your comments.

I buy and consume reasonable quantities of a moderately high-end adult beverage and was pleased to receive, in the mail, a promotional package from the parent company inviting me to participate in an attractive sweepstakes.

The mailing piece probably cost them $5-$10 and was very well done. The Grand Prizes were awesome, and there were even gifts for anyone who completed a series of tasks designed to get me in front of their brand message 6 times over six weeks.

I went online, registered for the contest and even made sure I "white-listed" their email address so the promotional announcements could reach me.

Then - in rather small text near the bottom - I noticed the phrase:

• Contest VOID in California.

WHAT? WHY? Who do I talk to about this?

Now - I know this is not the fault of the sponsor. But right now, I am really ticked at them for even leading me down this path. Heck, they had my mailing address. Why even SEND the dang thing to me if they KNEW the contest was VOID where I lived?

Question? Should the sponsor have taken steps to mitigate this lousy feeling I have? Should they have limited the mailing to people outside California? Or, am I being a big baby?

Code of Ethics

Ad Age has posted the entire 20-page "Code of Ethics" submitted as part of her sentencing by former Ogilvy & Mather exec Shona Siefert.

No matter how you spin the semantics, we are all involved in shaping opinions and managing image - so Ms. Seifert's suggestions are timely and appropriate.

Suggestion: Take the time to read the entire 20-page document. Distribute it to anyone on your team who handles image and opinion management. Have serious discussions about the relevancy of the "Code" to your organization.

Then - let me know how the discussion went.

Familiarity Breeds Ignorance

I am working with a client who is impaled on the horns of a dilemma (ouch).

The company is an industry leader. Well-established. Popular with consumers. The focus of my assignment is one of their evergreen products that has consistently delivered good results over the years.

So, what's the problem?

The product has been around so long and has been so popular, that many non-users have critical misconceptions about its ACTUAL features and benefits. When shoppers go looking for an item to meet their needs, my client's is often over-looked because buyers believe it does not have what they want.

Perceived familiarity has led the customer to ignore new messages about the product that would serve to re-educate them regarding its actual uses.

Fixing this will require my client to think differently about the way they tell their story. What worked before is now working against them. They won't reinvent the product, but they will need to reinvent the way they talk about it.

Assignment: Read this to your leadership team and challenge them to look for new ways to tell the story about your most successful product or service.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing (Trend Watch)

There's a new wind blowing through the marketing arena. You will be hearing more about Word of Mouth Marketing.

It really is nothing new. People have been telling their friends about good (and bad) commercial experiences since Eve told Adam about the forbidden fruit.

What's different about this new wind is the intentionality of the approach. There's even a Word of Mouth Marketing conference sponsored by the WOMMA - Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

Seems like someone is finally trying to control the organic path that WOM messages follow. My advice is to keep an ear open for dialog about WOM. The same way you paid attention to noise about the "World Wide Web" and "One-to-One" marketing a few years back. This is going to grow for a while and the things we learn as a result will change the way we tell stories about our products and services.

For a good discussion thread on WOM, visit John Moore's Brand Autopsy blog.

Question: Is this a different thing? Or, a thing done differently?

Wisdom from the plains of Texas

True story -

I was the brand new marketing director for an association of 350+ retail stores and very excited about the comprehensive Christmas advertising campaign I had developed. Each store as going to be able to select elements that were "perfect" for their market and we had gathered a significant amount of co-op money from vendors.

After mailing out information packets to all the stores, my customer service team sat poised by the phones anticipating the flood of calls we were going to receive as store operators placed their orders for Christmas advertising.

As you can probably surmise, there were very few calls. I was flabbergasted and decided to call a few stores to make sure the mailings had arrived.

It only took one call - to a store in Brazos Valley, Texas - to teach me a lesson I've never forgotten and try to pass along as often as I can.

The store manager affirmed that he had received the package and had actually tried to figure it out. Unfortunately, the matrix of choices and options I had developed were far too confusing for anyone to understand, despite the fact that I had even designed the material with color charts and graphs.

In his best Texas drawl, the guy in Brazos Valley said, "Jim, this might be a great program but confusion is the mother of indecision and I cain't make a decision if I cain't understand what Ah'm supposed to be deciding."

It really was a good program, but he was passing up a couple thousand dollars worth of free advertising because I had made the decision too complex.

Suggestion: Bring someone from outside your company, someone who knows nothing about what you're trying to accomplish, and ask them to make decisions based on your material. Watch them try to negotiate your website, decipher your deal flyers or understand your discount schedule.

YOU may know how to read your stuff, but that doesn't matter because YOU do not shop at your store. What you think doesn't matter - it's the customer's indecision that's killing you.

Question: Can you think of examples where a good product or service suffered because the explanation or sales pitch was too confusing?

Tell me this is a fake, PLEASE

Ben and Jackie at Church of the Consumer open the door to a sad commentary on customer relations.

Read this and try to decide if it's really a fake conversation.

Tell me something I don't know

I was watching the Chris Matthews Show on Sunday morning and heard something he does each week, but this time from a different perspective.

Chris ends his program each week by asking his panel to "tell me something I don't already know."

Tough assignment. Matthews is one of the sharpest guys on TV and there probably isn't much he doesn't already know.

Washington politics is a group sport and there isn't much an insider like Matthews hasn't heard. However, the members of his panel were in a position to give their host a different spin on the prevailing conventional wisdom of the day and offering a fresh perspective brings something of value to the table.

What he should say each week is, "give me a fresh perspective on something I already know."

Suggestion: Greet your management team at this week's meeting with the request for them to give you a different spin on something you already know.

While you're going around the room, pay attention to those who tell you what they think you want to hear and to those who give you genuinely valuable fresh perspectives. Doing so might help you increase profits by eliminating people who aren't contributing something you don't already have.

Weekend Bonus

Because I live close enough to Yosemite to make it up and back in a day, I drove up the day Glacier Point Road was opened and snapped a few photos. Thought you might enjoy this view of Nevada Falls in full roar. Have a great weekend.


Most browsers will allow you to click and enlarge the picture.

Good weekend chuckle

This post from an author in Australia is a real hoot - I laughed all the way through.

Enjoy

And it wouldn't be anywhere near as funny were it not unfortunately true.

I am NOT kidding

While reviewing some meeting notes with a pro bono client, I came across something that caused me to LOL (laugh out loud).

The organization desperately needs to update some service offerings and programs but doing so will slaughter some very well-established sacred cows. From just about everyone’s perspective the changes are critical and without them the organization will be doomed to fail within the space of just a few years as constituent levels continue a steady decline.

One member of the leadership team is highly invested in maintaining the status quo; having successfully blocked every attempt to implement new ideas. It was this individual whose comment during the meeting was packed with ironic hilarity.

When another team member suggested the organization might run a 6-month test to “see how people respond to the idea” this guy says – and I am NOT kidding, “I don’t want to try anything new, because if it works, we’ll never go back to the old way.”

Read it again.

And you thought your group was the only one with problems like this!

Innovate by moving backward

As this Wired News piece by Chris Kohler suggests, there are times when the most innovative thing you can do is to reach back for something that was popular and bring it to market with a fresh coat of paint.

Suggestion: Read the article to your management team, then open the discussion up to talk about other products or services that earned new popularity after being off-the-shelf for a while.

The goal is to end up considering which of your old ideas could be successfully revived.

Retro Gamers Unite

The Class of 2009 has arrived

Because my daughter is one of them, I am focused with greater interest than usual to this annual list from Beloit College.

As you read the list, consider this:

If your company wants to keep up with the Class of 2009, you will need to "do a different thing OR do things differently."

Lookin' for fun, and feelin' groovy*

I am fascinated by the premise of In Praise of Slowness from Carl Honoré.

Published in the spring of 2004, In Praise of Slowness presents arguments and case histories to support the idea that "many of us live in fast forward - and pay a heavy price for it. Our work, health and relationships suffer. Over-stimulated, over-scheduled and overwrought, we struggle to relax, to enjoy things properly, to spend time with family and friends."

Honoré explores evidence of a world-wide movement focused on the deceleration of life. But it's not some return-to-the-sixties concept where we all give up cars and check email by candle light. "Being slow," explains the author, "means living better in the hectic modern world by striking a balance between fast and slow."

Read more . . .



* - 59th Street Bridge Song -- Paul Simon

Carpé Mañana

As someone who spends a considerable amount of his time in the future, I've always had a problem with the Latin phrase Carpé Diém.

I actually like the idea of "seizing" the day, but doing so can lead to a reactionary and shortsighted approach. Taken at face value, "Seize the Day" could be translated into "Grab Whatever Comes Along."

So, I was pleased this week to hear a university president encourage incoming freshmen students to Carpé Mañana - seize tomorrow.

Suggestion: Decide before today, what you will do today. When your organization is faced with a difficult situation that demands a quick decision, it is very helpful to rely on pre-established core values with which everyone agrees.

The five values I use in my practice are, in order of importance:

Integrity - I will always tell you the truth
Excellence - I will always make you look good
Value - I will always add something to the equation
Fun - God promises an "abundant life" and I intend to live one
Profits - It has to be profitable for both of us

Using this matrix to filter decisions helps me keep things in perspective.

Help Wanted: Ignorance a Plus

If your company maintains the noble policy of "promoting from inside" you might consider the breeding ground this is for sacred cows and status quo thinking.

Openings on your team should be viewed as opportunities to introduce new ideas; folks who have been around long enough to earn a promotion might be too eager to show they know how to do things "the company way."

In fact, you may even give bonus points to a candidate who is nonetheless competent yet carries a healthy helping of ignorance about your company or industry. Qualified people with experience in areas not normally associated with your industry can bring excitingly foolish perspectives to the table.

Let's hear it for the applicant who lists "ignorance" as one of his or her core competencies.

Smart things Einstein said, other than that E-equals bit

I was paging though Einstein for Dummies this week and learned something useful about the famous scientist; he was more than a brilliant physicist. From a very early age, Einstein was a card-carrying member of the Fool's Box.

Dr. Carlos I Calle, who research the book for John Wiley, found a high school French paper by Einstein, in which he wrote, "A happy man is too comfortable with the present to think much about the future." He was advocating the value of dissatisfaction while still in his teens.

Einstein didn't fit in. He clashed with teachers and fellow students. His political views got him in trouble with the German government of the late nineteenth century. Yet, he and Isaac Newton are arguably the two greatest minds in the history of humankind, according to Calle.

Can you imagine how useless Einstein's intellect would have been had he not challenged the status quo; had he not felt compelled to say foolish things and follow foolhardy scientific paths?

Not everyone who resists "the way we've always done it" is going to turn the universe on its ear, but only those who tap out their own rhythm will even have half a chance of making a real difference.

Suggestion: The next time someone makes a statement of "fact" regarding a long-held tradition or assumption, take the opportunity to ask - gently - "why?"

Swatting Flies or Moving Trash Cans

I was recently asked what "overnight change" I would suggest for a potential client trying to navigate the future. Here is part of my answer:

There are two types of change - revolutionary and evolutionary. Your question refers to revolutionary change, which is typically a painful process. Rapid - "overnight" - change is often the result of a reaction to something in the environment. Revolutions always create collateral damage and often leave new problems in their wake. Consider, for example, the situation in Iraq following the overnight change in their leadership. Old problem gone, new problems in its place.

Evolutionary change, on the other hand, allows time to work through issues and mitigate damage to the environment. This approach to change is typically focused on the "root cause" of the situation you are looking to alter. Revolutionary change is focused on the "how" while evolutionary change deals with the "why."

If you are at a picnic and the table is plagued by pesky flies, you can spray poison which kills the flies but ruins the food, or you can look around for the trash can that is a breeding ground and remove it to another area of the park. Poison or Reposition. Both eliminate the flies. One allows you to continue enjoying your food.

Suggestion: Make certain the change you are getting ready "spray" on your situation doesn't ruin your picnic. Ask your management team: "Are we swatting flies or do we need to look deeper and remove the breeding ground?"

Pro-actively seeking reactionary responses

I ran across this idea at Jon Strande's Business Evolutionist.

The author suggests that a customer's response to your message is a "reaction" and provides some tips for doing what you must to cause the reaction you desire.

Sounds intelligently "foolish" to me. Read more about the Reaction Economy.

TV does a "thing differently"

When approaching the need to change, an organization - or in this case, an industry - can either "do a different thing or do a thing differently."

I call this Thing One & Thing Two.

Faced with a future that has many more people getting entertainment elsewhere, visionaries at the TV networks are experimenting with the concpet of feeding audio-only versions of their programming to iPods and other listening devices.

According to Wired News: In the history of broadcasting, this is all highly unusual. The conventional wisdom is that TV without pictures is a big waste of bandwidth. "It's like being in a conversation with three or four people but you can't hear one of them," said Tom Taylor, editor of the Inside Radio industry journal.

Suggestion: Read the Wired News piece then ask your staff, "Is this a new thing or a thing done differently?

It's not MY car, it's OUR car

I am intrigued by TV commercials for the Kia Sportage, particularly one named Key Toss. Perhaps you've seen it: a woman tosses the keys to her Sportage out the window, where they are caught by a man in a business suit who drives the car for a while and then tosses the keys to a guy with a guitar, who tosses them to a waitress, who tosses them to a dog-walker on the beach. . . you get the picture.

The spot's only copy is the words to a song, "Start having a great life." This isn't about "owning" a car. No one in the commercial seems to give a second thought to the way "ownership" of the car is tossed from one person to the next.

Who ever is doing these commercials really has a handle on post-modern sensitivity.

Warning: If there's no one on your staff who thinks and breathes post-modern culture, you are in for a rough ride. To quote an old friend who still resonates with me, "the times, they are a-changin'."

Seth Godin does it again -

This guy is amazing. The creator of Purple Cows and Free Prizes has a new book coming in 8 weeks and his approach to marketing is truly remarkable - but then you shouldn't expect anything less.

Check this out.

Worth your time

You might spend some time at Brand Autopsy, a pleasantly iconoclastic anthology of news and thought related to corporate image management.

I was especially interested in this piece on the Kool-Aid Point.

Losing is Reality

In Richard Linklater's Bad News Bears remake, the team of misfits led by Billy Bob Thorton do not win the ultimate championship game. (Sorry if that spills the beans for you).

In a TIME interview (July 18), Linklater says he wasn't surprized when kids and parents watching advance runs of the film differed in their reaction to the final outcome. Kids liked the ending. Parents did not.

Kids are apparently more tuned in to reality than their folks. According to Linklater, "Most of us are losers most of the time." OUCH.

The point is - don't ever assume you know how your audience is going to respond. Linklater had a hunch what kids wanted, but he took the time to get "ground truth" and test the ending against his assumptions.

Suggestion: Take your executive team to watch Bad News Bears then stop at Starbucks, order fancy drinks and ask this question: "Where have our assumptions not lined up with reality, and how can we avoid that in the future?"

Running barefoot at Nike

Folks in Nike's "Innovation Kitchen" have developed their latest generation of running shoe by suggesting that serious athletes should train with their feet au naturel. Interviews with track coaches exposed the practice of running barefoot during training and the Kitchen went to work trying to emulate the way feet work when they aren't wrapped in nylon and rubber.

Hats off to the fools at Nike for suggesting that wearing shoes might actually hinder serious athletic pursuits. It's that kind of heresy that leads to truly different ideas.

Suggestion: Do you reap the benefits of a Fool's Box in your organization? Perhaps it's time to look for a group of people who can consider heresies and challenge the status quo without fear of retribution or consequence.

When was the last time your company "ran barefoot."

Three Cheers!!! for the pessimists

I'm having a good time re-reading Seth Godin’s Free Prize Inside and had to chuckle at the twist he uses to define those people in every organization who will never support a new idea. Seth says these folks must be optimists because they think things just can't get any better than they already are.

These steadfast naysayers typically lack the ability to imagine anything different so we really can't call them "optimists" - but let's play along with Seth for a moment.

IF a pessimist is someone who is unhappy with the status quo - give us more pessimists.

IF pessimism is the power that drives a quest for different ideas - every company should appoint a Vice President of Corporate Pessimism.

"Blessed are the pessimists, for they shall change the world."

Setting up a Syndication Link

Popular demand is calling me to set-up the FoolsBox with a syndication link so others can distribute the content.

The FoolsBox should support RSS and ATOM feeds. Let me know if you have trouble. I use NetNewsWire and it seems to work fine.

Some RSS readers will work fine with the basic URL -

http://foolsbox.blogspot.com

.
Others will require the more functional URL -

http://foolsbox.blogspot.com/atom.xml

TiVO Beats the F-Fwd Button

"We're trying to allow viewers to get the best out of their viewing experience," said David Courtney as he announced a new feature on TiVO that will display an advertiser's brand on the screen as viewers fast-forward through the commercials.

The new feature will also allow viewers to press a button that takes them deeper into the advertiser's product information - like a "right click" on their computer mouse.

This is a tremendous example of the new paradox faced by business leaders in the 21st century. Unlike the old "third alternative" approach where both sides to an dilemma give a little to reach compromise - this solution gives advertisers and viewers what they want.

Advertisers win. Viewers win. TiVO wins.

Discussion: Look at some recent compromise decisions in company and discuss solutions that would have provided a 100% "win" for both sides.

Daddy, Can we get a Penguin?

Here we go.

Get ready for a rash of copy-cat efforts looking to play "me too" with the success of Warner Independent's March of the Penguins.

For those hoping to cash in on penguin-madness, keep in mind this film is not about penguins. It's a LOVE STORY, wonderfully shot and delightfully told by Morgan Freeman. Those adorable penguins are merely the packaging around the story.

When examining a popular product or service it's critical we get beyond the packaging to determine what it is the customer REALLY wants.

Suggestion: Take your management team to see March of the Penguins, then ask this question: Are people buying our most popular product or service because of the "penguin" or is there a deeper reason they're choosing us?

Can fools build bridges?

My brother John reminded me of the infamous character from San Francisco history known as Emperor Norton. This guy was a dreamer and probably a bit crazy, but he's widely credited with some great ideas that shaped San Francisco into the uniquely wonderful city it is today.

One of his most noted bits of "foolishness" was to suggest spanning the Golden Gate with a bridge. Keep in mind he died in 1880, about 50 years before construction on the Golden Gate Bridge was started.

So, my brother asked, "Can fools build bridges?"
"Define a bridge," I replied.
"A bridge," he said, "is something that takes us from one place to another across an otherwise unpassable divide."

Fools are people who speak the truth in unusual ways. They are people who help us look at things differently by asking the "foolish" questions no one else can or will.

By taking us from one place (the present) and transporting us to another place (the future), fools certainly can and do build bridges.

Stuck by their own sword

I was visiting with a client this morning and came across a great example of "death by success."

This company is a category killer in their industry with about 80% market share and incredible brand awareness. Problem is - they are SO successful at what they do, that no one will allow them to make changes
necessary for continued success in the future. If they keep doing what they're doing, they will not be around in 10 years, maybe less.

I encouraged them to set up a Fool's Box with the assignment of looking
for ways to build a successful future by dismantling their successful present.

Stay tuned - and in the meantime, ask yourself these questions:

1 - Is there something our company does that is really good but might be a hindrance to success in the future?
2 - Do we pay too much attention to the present, at the expense of the future?

Atkins Empire on the Rocks

News item - Atkins Nutritionals, the food products company spawned by Robert Atkins low-card diet revolution, has filed bankruptcy. Seems as though popularity of the nothing-but-meat-cheese-and-eggs regimen has diminished dramatically in recent months.

What happened? How might the people at Atkins better positioned their company to ride this out?
Were they victims of their own success?

Re-inventing TV

Read past the story on Al Gore (yawn) and take a look at the future of TV.

link to NY Times

Practicing VS Predicting the Future

Here's a true statement: The more precise you are in predicting the future, the greater chance you have of being wrong.

Whether you believe the future is crashing through your front door, or that you are zooming headfirst into the future, the reality of the opening statement remains. You cannot know with certainty what the future holds in store.

Organizations who rely on a rigid picture of what's to come are at grave risk of finding they have planned for the wrong outcome.

There is no magic pill, but the smart thing to do is to "practice the future" by setting up a Fool's Box of individuals who can talk about things only fools would discuss, so that when some of these crazy things become reality the organization can look around and say, "Oh, this isn't a surprize, we practiced this scenario three years ago in our Fool's Box."

Question - Does your company plan rely on situations you KNOW will happen in the future?

What is your Future Perspective?

The way you plan for the future is influenced by how you perceive the future's advent on your present.

Think about this: Is the future crashing in on you? Or, are you crashing into the future?

Put another way: Do you (or your organization) control what happens in the future with your actions today? Or, do things that will happen in the future exist beyond your ability to change them, requiring you to "be prepared" for whatever comes your way?

Your perspective on this will have a profound effect on the way you approach strategic and tactical planning.

It's Not Who You Know, Or What You Know - It's HOW You Learn It - May 2005

When I was kid, the entire collection of everything I needed to know was contained in a 32-volume set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. History, science, language, art - it was all there. And every year, we'd receive an annual volume to update the knowledge base with new things we needed to know. The extent of society's knowledge about itself expanded at the pace of one large encyclopedia volume per year.

Things have changed. You don't need me to tell you the pace has picked up a bit since then. Our accumulated knowledge expands at a rate none of us can maintain. Today's expert in a certain field, can easily become tomorrow's relic; a curious museum piece, put out to pasture through no fault of their own, other than falling a step behind and failing to be relevant.

I've been thinking quite a bit about this recently as my daughter prepares to start college. I am looking for nuggets of wisdom related to what major would best prepare her for the future in a world that is growing exceedingly more competitive and flat. What should she learn? What courses would serve her best?

New York Times columnist and author Tom Friedman writes:

"The most important thing you can learn in this era of heightened global competition is how to learn. Being good at "learning to learn," as President Bill Brody of Johns Hopkins put it, will be an enormous asset in an era of rapid change and innovation."

The best advice I can give my daughter will be - "Regardless of your major, develop the ability to learn new things and never lose your curiosity for the future."

So?

Substitute "major" with the words "core competency" and this lesson can relate to your company.

In a global environment that is growing exponentially more competitive with increasingly fewer boundaries, your organization's core competencies are less relevant than your ability to adopt new ideas and metamorphosize into something different.

• UPS was a top-notch overnight delivery system - until it joined forces with Mail Boxes Etc and became a top-notch overnight delivery system with convenient retail drop-off locations all over the country.
• Ditto for the marriage of FedEx and Kinko's. They haven't changed what they do, but they have learned a new way they do it.
• I received a catalog in the US MAIL last week from Amazon.com. The Internet shopping powerhouse that forced many traditional catalog merchandizers to recreate themselves is changing the rules - again - by sending a printed catalog to it's on-line customers.
• Business Week reported on May 12, 2005 that Kodak - the world's leading photographic film supplier - was the number one seller of digital cameras in the US. Talk about learning new things.

Nothing stands still. Rules change, loyalties shift, technology goes obsolete, markets dry up and new markets come from nowhere. Holding tight to yesterday's core competence can paralyze you.

Don't be fooled. There are too many companies who THINK they are learning new things when they are actually reading old volumes of the encyclopedia; rehashing old ideas and, as we used to say in Wyoming, "putting lipstick on a pig."


It's time for serious evaluation:

1. Is there someone on your staff who has the regular assignment of looking for new ideas? Do they have the authority to question the status quo?
2. Does your corporate culture honor people who come in with wild and crazy ideas?
3. Does the company reward people who try new things - without regard to failure or success?
4. Do you have established relationships with people outside the company who can bring in fresh ideas and offer third opinions? Every organization should have someone like me on retainer. Someone who is not bound by company politics or the tyranny of the urgent.
5. How often do you invite "guest lecturers" to come in and teach your team something new?
6. When was the last time you shuffled your organizational chart?
7. When was the last time you dumped an entire product line?
8. When was the last time you considered buying or forming an alliance with a competitor?

If I've provoked some thoughts and you'd like someone to bounce an idea off, drop me an email or give me a call. I've never met a new idea I didn't like, at least for a few minutes.

Until next month -


Jim Seybert

The Smell of Success - April 2005

I love the smell of fresh mint and of newly cut pine branches. My daughter, when she was much younger, would stick her head out the car window while I filled the tank because she loved "the smell of gasoline." My wife is a big fan of scented candles and we have many of them around the house.

Smells Sell

A recent study of affluent Americans revealed that 4-in-5 adults say they purchase products to make their home smell good. Unity Marketing says the market for fragrance products reached $8.3-billion in 2004, a 14 percent jump over 2003.

It's All in Our Heads

Brain scientists at Harvard have been studying the way we process odors. They have found that our sense of smell goes directly to the area of the brain that triggers emotional responses; by-passing all the cognitive steps required to process the other senses.

In plain English - Smell is the only one of the five senses that can cause an immediate and automatic emotional response. Scientists believe there is something primal about the way we react to odors. Of all the senses, smell is the one most closely linked to memory and instinct. For many animals, smell is the primary source of information about the environment.

We all have certain smells that stir up instantaneous emotional reactions. I live near the ocean and after being away for a few days, an immediate feeling of well-being warms my heart when I step out of the plane upon returning and take in a deep breath of ocean air. "Ahhhhh, home."

So, how does your company smell?

When customers come into contact with your organization, what is their automatic response? What emotional triggers are pulled when they "catch a whiff" of your products or services? Companies with "pleasant aromas" can count on their customers to choose them without having to stop and think about the choice.

As you think about this, ask these questions:

1 - How do we "smell" to our customers? Pleasant? Pungent? Stale? Inviting?

2 - What automatic response do we want our customers to have when the think about us?

3 - What can we do to make our company more "fragrant?"

It can be difficult to determine your own aroma - try checking yourself for bad breath. My consulting practice specializes in helping companies find new ways to do things and developing a "fresh scent" is something I'd be honored to help you achieve. Drop me an email and we can chat about your specific needs.

Jim Seybert