Free Friday

In the U.S. today, we see the incredible power of price on consumer behavior as millions of people storm retail stores around the country in search of bargain.

One price point being used frequently is Free. The Apple Store will give you Free shipping and $21 off the retail price of a new iPod Touch if you order it today. Best Buy will give you a Free $30 gift card and Free shipping today and tomorrow. And ToysRUs was offering a Free $50 gift card with the purchase of an iPod Touch if you got to the store today before 1PM.

I have been fascinated with Free since the July release of Chris Anderson's book. The concept is constantly seeping into conversations about newspapers, books, music, movies, and television. And with all of the talk, we seem no better prepared to discuss Free with intelligence. The dialogue gets bogged down in incongruent comparisons of apples, oranges, and antelopes with the collision of economic theory, legal precedent, and moral consequence.

On January 7th, the six month anniversary of Free, I am going to release an ebook about the concept of Free--my attempt at clarifying the salient points around Free and provide some paths we can all use to move forward.

Posted onFriday, Nov 27, 2009 in Big Ideas, Economics, Marketing, Strategy | Permalink | Comments Next »

Creators and Performers

Another angle to yesterday's Taylor Swift post:

The marketplace rewards the performers, the rainmakers that separate people from their money. CEOs. Professional Athletes. Gladiators.

Scientists and poets are cool and desperately needed, but they don't get the big bucks. Ask most any painter or playwright.

Much better to be singer-songwriter than just songwriter.

Posted onWednesday, Nov 25, 2009 in Big Ideas, Media | Permalink | Comments Next »

Auto-Nation

"But songs trump singing all day long. Anybody can sing, especially in this auto-tune era. But being able to write a great song, one that grabs fans lyrically and melodically, that’s truly tough. And Taylor Swift has accomplished that."

Bob Lefsetz wrote this at the end of a blog post about a conversation he had with Taylor Swift. I was really struck by this paragraph.

First, I thought about all the things that computers can fix now. Spelling. Our memory about the meaning of a word. Acne (if you are on the cover of Cosmo).

Whether it is 'i' before 'e' or a flawless complexion, these correction routines mean more people can do more things better. Dan Pink in A Whole New Mind told us to watch out for abundance, Asia, and auto-tuning (he actually said automation). And Pink said we should work on design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning.

Create and connect.

Posted onTuesday, Nov 24, 2009 in Big Ideas | Permalink | Comments Next »

Ideas - An Illustrated Seven Step Guide on How to Kill Them

These awesome images are from illustrator Scott Campbell. The series was originally developed for a independent film group in Portugal. You check out a few more of the original concepts at Scott's blog.

Hat Tip: Dave Gray and Adland

Posted onMonday, Nov 23, 2009 in Big Ideas | Permalink | Comments Next »

Leadership Advice #1 - Accenture CEO William Green

There is no shortage of advice that floats around about how to be successful and success comes from being a leader. I am not suggesting you in to hold a high post to be a leader, just that you blaze a trail for others to follow.

I am going to start compiling guidance like this and maybe we can see over time if there are some common trends.

In yesterday's New York Times' Corner Office column, Accenture CEO William Green offered the three things he thinks matter for new manager at his company:

1. Competence - "Being good at what you do, whatever it is, and focusing on the job you have, not on the job you think you want to have."
2. Confidence - "People want to know what you think. So you have to have enough desirable self-confidence to articulate a point of view."
3. Caring - "Nothing today is about one individual. This is all about the team, and in the end, this is about giving a damn about your customers, your company, the people around you, and recognizing that the people around you are the ones who make you look good."

Posted onMonday, Nov 23, 2009 in Leadership | Permalink | Comments Next »

Parti

A parti is the central idea or concept of a building

A parti [par-TEE] can be expressed several ways but is most often expressed by a diagram depicting the general floor-plan organization of a building and, by implication, its experience and aesthetic sensibility. A parti diagram can describe massing, entrance, spatial hierarchy, site relationships, core location, interior circulation, public/private zoning, solidity/transparency, and many other concerns. The proportion of attention given to each factor varies from project to project.

[...] It is unlikely, if not impossible, to successfully carry a parti from an old project to a new project. The design process is the struggle to create a uniquely appropriate parti for a project.

Some will argue that an ideal parti is wholly inclusive—that it informs every aspect of a building from its overall configuration and structural system to the shape of the doorknobs. Others believe that a perfect parti is neither attainable or desirable.

- No. 15 from 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Fredrick

The Robie House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; parti and photo

Posted onFriday, Nov 20, 2009 in Big Ideas | Permalink | Comments Next »

The Cut

Jesse from the Put This On¹ blog was answering a question the other day from a reader who wanted to know what could be do to alter a vintage suit he had bought. The first sentence from his answer stuck with me:

Pants fashion should be (and largely is) about cut, not size.

This is certainly what Clinton and Stacey from What Not To Wear have been telling us for years, but hearing it said that way made me think beyond fashion for a minute.

I started to think about how it might be the same for all ideas. It is hard to tailor ideas that don't correspond with the circumstances. Consider Grant McCracken's prognosis for Dollhouse. The protagonist Echo is imprinted each episode with a new identity and culturally, McCracken argues, we don't like to see forced transformations each week. There is a problem with "the cut" that a new actress or different script can fix.

¹ - Check out Put This On. As Mark at Index MB puts it - "Esquire or GQ should have launched a show like this in 2006." They are raising money to produce six more episodes over at Kickstarter. Go pitch in a few bucks.
Posted onThursday, Nov 19, 2009 in Big Ideas | Permalink | Comments

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The 11 Problems That Kill Organizations

Or The Eleven Focus Areas for Consultants to Sell Services.

This list is from Alan Weiss' Million Dollar Consulting. The fourth edition of the book was released in July and about half way through the book, Weiss says that he got out of organizational consulting because all the problems started to look the same.

1. Leadership is inept in that key people are not serving as avatars of the behavior they are seeking in others.
2. Team building is sought when, in actuality, the organization has committees and needs committees, not teams.
3. There are silos headed by powerful people who are defending their turf.
4. Problem solving is prized over innovation, and "black belt nine delta" nonsense takes over people's minds like a bad science fiction movie from the 1950's
5. There is excessive staff interference instead of support, typically from HR, finance, IT, and/or legal.
6. There are too many meetings that take too long and are overwhelmingly focused on sharing information—the worst possible reason to have a meeting. The organization's talent and energy are being squandered internally instead of being applied externally
7. The customer's perceptions of the organization's products, services, and relationships are different from the organization's perception.
8. The reward and feedback systems are not aligned with strategy and are not encouraging the appropriate behaviors and discouraging the inappropriate.
9. Strategy and planning are mistaken for each other.
10. Career development and succession planning are not wedded.
11. The organization is bureaucratic , in that it focus on means and not ends.

So, do these look like the same problems that you over and over again in the companies that you work for and with?
Posted onWednesday, Nov 18, 2009 in Management, Marketing, Sales, Strategy | Permalink | Comments

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Precendents

"That's not fair."

I have been hearing that phrase more and more lately with my two boys. In most cases, what they really mean is "I don't like that," but there are some cases when my treatment of two similar situations is inconsistent and I am happy to entertain that challenge. Being fair as a parent (or a manager) is important.

Someone used a similar line on me recently, "Well, that's what others do." This may not sound the same at first, but it is the other side of the coin - "See, I am being fair." The statement was meant to reinforce consistency.

Nine out of ten teenagers like to use this kind of social proof. "Billy's mom is letting him juggle chainsaws in the talent show. Why can't I?"

These all involve a code of common law. "Look at the common facts in this case as compared to these other similar cases. You can clearly see, your honor, that in all fairness, we must treat these same." Agreeing on the facts is what courts spend the majority of time doing.

My point: Make sure the facts and the other cases are really the same. And if they are, be sure to clearly explain that to the opposing counsel. It's only fair.

Posted onTuesday, Nov 17, 2009 in Management | Permalink | Comments Next »

100 Best Review from Finland

Matti Copeland from mcreads.com posted a video review of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time
. He reports 13 of The 100 Best have been translated into his native Finnish.

Thanks Matti!

Posted onMonday, Nov 16, 2009 | Permalink | Comments | TrackBack (0) Next »