The Purple Hotel

If you grew up on the north side of Chicago or in the north suburbs sometime in the last 40 years, you probably remember "The Purple Hyatt" in Lincolnwood, Illinois, a shrine to Sixties Kitsch Style. I actually remember going there to visit family friends when I was about 6, circa 1965. Even then I could tell it was tacky!

By the time I worked at the Hyatt corporate office in the early '90's, The Purple Hyatt had become "The Purple Radisson," and no one at Hyatt could mention the hotel without a sigh of relief that it was no longer associated with our brand. After all, this hotel was sort of a local joke.

But I drove by there yesterday, and saw a twist on the branding of this property that is, at the least, amusing. The hotel is no longer The Purple Hyatt or The Purple Radisson—it's The Purple Hotel. Why apologize for an architectural anachronism? Embrace it!

High Speed Web. Low Speed Service.

[This just in from one of our colleagues: Mike Neiss, welcome to blogworld! It seems Mike had to get a bit upset before he had something to say ...]

From Mike:
I started getting odd messages from my clients that their emails were being bounced back. Well aware of my technology expertise level, I figured I must have done something wrong. I reconfigured my account settings in Outlook, sent a trial message, and it appeared I had fixed the problem. Wrong. I finally talked with my web host, ipower web, at 5:30AM. Seems that when I renewed my domain, someone forgot to register it at ipower. Of course they were appropriately "sorry for the inconvenience" and appreciated "my patience." Patience in the web world?? No way! I was out of touch with my clients and friends. They blew it, not me. They had my cash, I had no website.

[read more]

Right-Brain Rules

Our Cool Friend Dan Pink has a new book on its way March 24. In A Whole New Mind, Dan writes that "To flourish in this age, we'll need to supplement our well-developed high tech abilities with aptitudes that are 'high concept' and 'high touch.'" Meaning the left side of our brains has gotten a pretty good workout so far; now it's time to develop the right side. The book is excerpted in the current Wired magazine.

Caveat Emptor Verizon

I left Verizon Wireless two years ago for the lower prices at Sprint. Sprint was a big service disappointment, so I decided to return to Verizon. I dashed into a Verizon store two weeks ago and figured out what I wanted in about 5 minutes—4 lines, the first two at $99 and the second two at $9.95 each.

Then, I returned a week ago to sign up for new service and buy phones. It was taking a long time and I had to be somewhere, so I had the sales person do all the paperwork, and I returned an hour later to pick up the phones and sign on the dotted line.

OK, this is ultimately my fault: I didn't read the fine print to see what the extra surcharges were. I figured the surcharges were equally egregious as all cell phone companies'.

Then the first bill arrived. Additional surcharges and taxes amounted to 69% of the monthly fees, i.e., a hidden $82 on top of the $120 that they were advertising. Taxes are a small piece of that—most of it is for Verizon.

Yes, when I go back and read the fine print, I see those charges were described. So yes, it is my fault. My fault for trusting my new cell phone provider and assuming that they won't try to reach into my pockets to grab cash when I'm not looking!

Re-imagine a Life Without the Right to Choose

Okay, it was Sunday and Ski-day, but did you catch the historical news? Lines of people, one for men and another for women, stood waiting patiently to cast one PRECIOUS vote in the first election that allowed people to express their minds and their hearts without losing them. And it was the first in five decades. FIVE DECADES is a lifetime.

Re-imagine a life without the power to vote, to have a say. Sounds terrible and out of control, eh? Out-of-control is what stresses us out to that state where stress makes us stupid and, ultimately, contributes to sickness and shortens longevity—i.e., stress makes us dead. But it sounds too much like life in the corporate fish bowl where lack of control, due to an inability to have a say, takes a serious cut into health, the ability to stay at the front of the pack and to stay in it for the long run.

Re-imagine a life in the wide world of work that embraces the ability to choose your destiny, to exert control, to VOTE. Now that's worth standing in line and playing-to-win! Proactive, provocative, really going for it! That's a life worth living and loving whether you're a solo flyer, a contributing team member fielding hockey pucks or corporate takeovers, or a global competitor.

What would you do to defend, or obtain, your right to vote? What would you choose or not choose in the workplace setting where you "spend" most of your life? What will you do today?

How Fast a Brand Can Lose Its Power!

Rewind the clock to 1998, the home run race between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire. Even considering The Tribune, The Sears Tower, Billygoat Tavern, Steppenwolf Theater, Michael or Da Bears, Sammy Sosa was just about the biggest, most meaningful brand in Chicago.

And it continued on—from 1998 through 2002 Sammy hit 292 homers while batting .306 with a .649 slugging percentage. He is the only player in history with three 60+ home run seasons. And, he had a great personality—the fans loved him.

Fast forward to today: News of Sammy's trade to Baltimore. Fans interviewed on TV saying they're happy to see him go. The Cubs are paying a big chunk of his $17 million salary next year—for him to play on another team.

Things started to tail off in 2003 when Sammy was caught with a corked bat and suspended for 8 games, after which his performance suffered. This past season he missed a month with back problems caused—embarrassingly—by sneezing. (By then he'd lost the sympathy of the fans, and the sneezes became a joke.) Then he walked out of the clubhouse and left the ballpark before the last game of the season started, because he was unhappy that he was dropped to a lower position in the batting order.

Beyond baseball, what's the lesson here? If the Brand Called Sammy can go from hero to persona non grata, just think what can happen to your company if you stop performing ... or get caught corking your bat!

Event Slides: Houston

Tom speaks to DePuy Spine in Houston, TX. You can download the slides here.

Clothes Make the Man

Or in this case, the man makes the clothes. Yes, someone recently pointed me to this new blog—English Cut—by an actual Saville Row suit maker so check it out. Thomas Mahon is brilliant, and so is his blog.

The "someone" is a favorite blogger of mine, Hugh MacLeod, aka GapingVoid, here at www.gapingvoid.com. Check out his manifesto, "How To Be Creative" on Seth Godin's cool site, Change This.

Couldn't Help But Notice

As we're ranting about the P&G/Gillette merger, my Fortune magazine arrives with the cover story:

Why Carly's Big Bet Is Failing
Buying Compaq hasn't paid off for HP's investors. And there's no easy way out.

Do you think Fortune will be able to save this cover layout for when they write the inevitable P&G/Gillete story sometime in the not too distant future?

RANT Gillette

Tom's got an audio post at BizRants.blogspot.com.

And ...

P & G buys Gillette. $57 billion.
I only have one, small question?

WHAT'S THE POINT?

No "economies of scale" for companies that size.
Synergy?
Batteries and toilet paper?

So I guess the answer is obvious.

What's the point?
Because they can!

Silly boys!
Ah, if only their energy could have been directed to "insanely great" products, to steal a phrase from that boring "cool products" guy, Steve Jobs.

Dave Taylor does a great send-up of the deal.

Tell 'Em That in Cincinnati, Dick

"I don't believe in economies of scale. You don't get better by being bigger. You get worse."—Dick Kovacevich/CEO/Wells Fargo/Forbes08.2004

TP's "CEOs are Idiots20"

My list just got another entry:

CEOs are idiots because ...

20. Their egos distract them from the Real Work of Business.

'Nuff said.

Feeling One's Age!

We just lost 30+ Marines and a Navy medic in Iraq. Went down in a Sea Stallion., a CH-53 helicopter. Flash back. 38 years. Me. I Corps. Vietnam. Navy Seabee. (From "CB," Construction Battalion.) We are building "hardened camps" for US Army Special Forces teams, must move heavy equipment into the hinterlands. In 1967 a new tool arrives. You guessed it. The CH-53 Sea Stallion. A Big Deal. CBS News covers its arrival "in country." And it's about to take its first "operational" flight. Who's aboard? Me. We cruise inland, and get our baptism in fire, far sooner than we'd supposed. Nobody KIA, but all of us shaken up. My CO (Commanding Officer) offers me a Purple Heart, but I'd been nothing more than scratched by an errant shell that wobbled around the craft, thought it was bullshit, and turned it down. That was 38 years ago. The mighty CH-53 is still serving our courageous troops. My heart goes out to the Families & Friends of the KIAs.

Love It!

I LOVE Our Democracy!

"W" is off to the Greenbrier, to mingle with the Republican masses. The Washington Post reports that they've got their own agenda. W has run his last race, and the Reps have their own race to run in a mere 2 years, so they're taking no crap.

This is not a "W" Post, but a "How Cool" post about Mr Adams & Mr Jefferson's Marvelous Machine. Dem or Rep, I love it that Powerful People are trashed by the Rank & File in our Wonderful System! "I'm runnin' for election, Dude," the Representatives say to the President, "you're not!"

Buck Me Up Here!

I AM SUDDENLY VERY WEARY. WORLD WEARY. REALIZING THAT 38 YEARS AGO I FLEW THE FIRST CH-53 MISSION. AND NOW WE LOST 30 PEOPLE ON ANOTHER CH-53 MISSION IN ANOTHER DISTANT ENVIRON. THE WORLD IS A TESTY PLACE. YE GADS!

P&G Buying Gillette

Branderific! Holy Tide! What a round-up of brands!

Read this Reuters story on the impending nuptials.

No wonder there was so much noise in my bathroom last night—my Crest toothpaste was negotiating with my Venus razor, my Head & Shoulders was discussing due diligence with my Right Guard deodorant. My Duracell Bunny could not calm down.

What's the verdict, folks—good, bad, indifferent?

Good Quote

There's a great "get you goin' in the mornin'" quote over at Incite By Design.

Big Day!

Today Is a BigDay! 01.27.2005 is the 6-month Anniversary of my modest blogging experiment. I celebrate it, not with a Long Blog, but with a short one.

Snow [LOTS OF] kept me from the BizBlogging Conf in SEATTLE. So while my Partner, Erik Hansen, attended, I stayed home ... AND WROTE. To be precise (more or less), 35,000 words. You'll see the fruits in a coupla weeks. Erik has Blogged the conference beautifully, and I've done my thing.

What else can I say? The ... WHOLE IDEA ... of the "Blogging Bit" is Honest Reporting ... eh?

(If there is ... EVER ... a ... Hint of Bullshit ... in This Space ... YOU will Call Me On It!

(I Love That.)

Rosie Owns the Place!

DogLovers-BlogLovers out there? I'm off. Meet Susan in Boston, then Houston-Bangkok-Miami-Wherever. Rosie, Queen, watches me go. She half raises an eyebrow from her perch on the kitchen couch. She's not "officially" allowed up there, but the minute I leave that's where she goes—we both understand. Our "Queen" is eleven, a Grande Dame. I have the distinct feeling that I'm here at her will. She runs the place, I visit. Her look says, "Off again, eh? Well, you're welcome to stop by when it's over; as you know, I'll be here. Be well, Dude."

Right?

Tom Peters' "CEOs Are Idiots19"

I fleshed out my earlier Rant. Here it is!

Notes from the Summit

Jennifer Rice of What's Your Brand Mantra has some pretty extensive notes from the Blog Summit, though she told me she lost a section when our network disappeared.

Later that Same Day

Stow Boyd and our friend Halley Suitt spoke about "True Voice: The Art and Science of Blog Writing." The point of which was, well, write well. Easier said than done. Granted. But practice practice practice always helps. My general sense of the conference so far is of two colliding contingents, the techies (who are all over the technology aspect of blogging), and the writers. The thing is, it's easier to learn new technologies than it is to learn to write. And a lot of folks here are clearly uneasy about the writing part. A lot of questions about voice and authenticity and making a fool of oneself are things that would be covered in any writing 101 course. There's a lot of unease about writing, about exposing oneself—to the world. It will always boil down to "write what you care about." Your audience will find you (with a little help from Trackback and search engines, of course.)

I'm looking forward to today's sessions, which will deal more with marketing and PR strategies and corporate blogs.

Blogs and Business

Day One at the summit. Some thoughts. A fair amount of the discussion today focused on how to make money from blogs. As individuals. Chris Pirillo talked about his various sites and how he uses ads and generates a good amount of dough. No one here wants to talk about actual money. Seems they've all got contracts with Google that prevent them from disclosing what they make. Someone asked Chris if he could pay his mortgage with what he makes from ads. He said he could pay everyone's mortgage. Meaning the mortgage of everyone in the room. About 120 folks. Either mortgages in Seattle are ridiculously low (which I doubt) or Chris is pulling in a serious amount of dough each month from his blogs. He's got staff to pay. He did, however, refuse to pay any of our mortgages.

Marc Canter, a big guy with a big voice was talking about Marqui, a conference sponsor best known for the fact that they pay bloggers to blog.

Molly—not a halfschlag—Holzschlag spoke about how just posting isn't enough to drive traffic to your site. Of course, you do have to post regularly, but you also need to have comments but you've got to moderate those and she says that Trackback is better than Permalink but you've got to watch out for the spammers. Ah, the blight of the online world. She has coauthored a book on using Movable Type blog software, among many other books on web design and HTML.

And I think today is her birthday. Happy Birthday, Molly!

Links to speakers' slides can be found here.

Dispatches from the Summit

Our friend Todd Sattersten is writing about the Blog Business Summit here.

My Own Aeron

Okay, so I checked into my room at the Seattle Waterfront Marriott and as I unpacked my laptop and put it on the desk I noticed the Aeron chair. I thought, "Cool, this hotel is really with it." It turns out, though, that Steve Broback, one of the organizers of the Blog Business Summit, had read Tom's rant in Re-imagine! about lousy hotel furniture. In anticipation of Tom's visit to Seattle, he had an Aeron put in Tom's room. And because I was coming here with Tom, I got a chair in my room as well. Tom got snowed in in Vermont, and so he didn't get to sit in his Aeron. But I did. Thanks, Steve.

Passion and Authority

Robert Scoble, in his opening comments here at the Blog Business Summit in Seattle said that passion and authority are two attributes of blogs that make them compelling.

There's a guy sitting beside me, Mitch Ratcliffe, who is posting detailed notes about the presentations.

Even Mannequins Want You to Make Mistakes

Wandering around Seattle yesterday, I came across this window display at Nordstrom. Our feelings exactly.

Scoble Birthday Party

Since I was going to Seattle for the Blog Business Summit, I headed out of Boston just in advance of the monstrous snowstorm that blanketed our fair city Saturday afternoon and night. Robert Scoble and his wife Maryam were kind enough to invite me to Robert's 40th birthday party. (Our friend Halley Suitt made the connection for me.) Met all kinds of folks from the blogging community. Best write-up of the party so far is from John Porcaro who is an X-box marketer at Microsoft.

"It's been a great year for New England Sports"

—Fearless Pats' Quarterback, Tom Brady!

Okay, I get it. Politics and sports, especially when you're a diehard Sox (as in THE Red Sox) and Pats and Bruins (remember the Stanley Cup?) fan may not be the politically correct blogging topics. Sadly, from living in NY and rooting for THE Sox in Yankee Stadium, I am fiercely aware that the topic of sports and politics can provide food for fight versus food for thought.

But who can resist, and who can sleep, on this historic night as Beantown marches toward yet another sport-on-record and we are dancing in the streets, or at least on snow-covered pathways! Go Pats Go!

Rejoicing aside, consider this—those guys played an awesome game (in the true sense of that word, I am in awe). They were "in the Zone"—focused, confident, and pumped as they faced the challenges of a level playing field and, then, the challenge of overdog at the start of the second half when "the other team" came on strong on their home turf—maybe a little too strong?

Consider this: What are the parallels to business? The pressures to achieve and push just enough but not over the edge, joys of success and being the overdog, and the agony of defeat on the wide world of sports are a lot like those on the wide world of work. What does it take to win and stay in the game when the pressure is on and you face a world class competitor? Ask Robert Kraft, Pats owner—"we're going to enjoy this moment for a while." Go Pats Go!

Can't Buy Me Love

I've been thinking about ...

One of the most powerful misconceptions in the world of marketing is that a bigger budget buys better marketing. It strikes me time and again that you can't buy great marketing, you just have to do it.

Here's a short article from the tompeters.com Brand Cafe archives on this idea.

Dinero Rapido

My son is learning Spanish and when I go to the ATM with him, I always let him pick "Espanol" in the first screen and then we try to figure out all the vocabulary. He's gotten good at "Dinero Rapido $60" which means "Quick Cash," that's for sure.

I love learning languages, and I take advantage of every opportunity I get to learn them. New technology affords quite a few.

Try a few of these language lab mind stretchers: switch your cell phone to another language (mine's in French to help me brush up on French telecom words); thanks to DVDs, you can watch a movie with subtitles (or dubbed) in another language very easily, it's fun; if you're making a routine 1-800-number-type call and they give you the option to pick another language, just do it for the hell of it. And did you know your iPod will speak to you in a few different languages? Achtung Baby!

Snow Day

Tell us about where you are today as the weather gods dump three feet of snow on you, fellow Bostonians (and non-Bostonians).

For once, I got out in time and flew to Seattle yesterday for a blogging conference that starts here Monday. It's a warmish (50 degrees F) rainy evening in the Northwest as the storm rages back home in the Northeast.

I was thrilled to simply go running in a light rain this morning here—the below zero temps at home make me feel like a weather hostage.

I'm Sorry!

It's rude to call people "idiots."
It's rude to call CEOs "idiots." (I am assuming here that "CEOs" are "people.")
It's really rude to call people "idiots" when you are a Guest.
It's really, really rude to call people "idiots" when you are a Guest in another country.
It's really, really, really rude to call CEOs "idiots" when you are a Guest in another country.

I guess that's why I got some blowback to my speech in Lisbon yesterday. I was being brash-American-California Tom, getting' my dander up with a crowd of retailers, many CEOs, over topics like grossly under-investing in IS/IT, seeing Big Mergers as Salvation rather than Disaster, ignoring the Women's Market, having too few Women in Top Management, failing to create Experiences (per Whole Foods Markets & London Drug & Apple Stores & Commerce Bank) that make Clientele "gasp," kaizen-ing one's way to Irrelevance rather than Boldly Grasping the Nettle. I said that "CEOs who don't get these Elementary Principles of Permanent Revolution [in a Time of Traumatic Competitive Pressure!] are 'idiots,' 'lunatics,' 'stupid.'"

Well, maybe, wherever I've landed, I'll let an ever-so-innocent PowerPoint slide "do the talking" in the future. ("It's not me that said it, it's PowerPoint!" Blame Bill Gates—that's always a popular line.) Hence I first created what you see below as a PP slide, titled "TPs 'CEOs Are Idiots18.'"

Here are the contents (remember: PowerPoint made me do it!). CEOs are idiots who ...

1. Fail to spend Hyper-aggressively on IS/IT; fail to follow "Gamechanger" IS/IT Strategies; fail to put their CIO on the Board; fail to exploit fully [Revolution Now!] the Web.
2. Believe in [BIG] mergers as The Key to Offense & Defense.
3. Hire MBAs in large #s.
4. Recruit mostly from conventional sources; have a low tolerance for risktakers-freaks.
5. Are less than 24/7 "Talent Fanatics."
6. Do too much Imitation/Benchmarking/ConstantImprovement, not enough "Breathtaking"/Disruptive Innovation; favor "marketshare" over MarketCreation.
7. Believe that "process" beats "passion," "analysis" beats "action."
8. Spend too much time in the Office, not enough time in the Field; fail to ColdCall at least One Customer per Week; are surrounded by sycophants; have low Tolerance for Contention.
9. ARE NOT LOVED BY FRONTLINE STAFF!
10. Do too much MicroSegmentation I: Grotesquely underestimate the Women's Market—and if they do more or less "get it," fail to understand the Strategic Transformation required to master it.
11. Do too much MicroSegmentation II: Grotesquely underestimate the Boomer-Geezer Market.
12. Have too few Women on the Executive Team, too few Women on the Board.
13. Whose ... Board = OWMs.
14. Balk at Technicolor actions and language—e.g., WOW!, Lovemarks, DreamMarketing, InsanelyGreat.
15. Think Design is a frill, nicety—not the Fundamental Basis for Value Added.
16. Tolerate less than Excellence, do not insist upon "Experiences that make me 'Gasp.'"
17. Deliver more on Short-term Earnings rather than Long-term Yearnings.
18. FAIL TO INSPIRE ME BY THE AUDACITY OF THEIR DREAMS. (Too much: "Dream" = "Buy MarketShare, Get BIGGER, Cut Costs.")

In conclusion:

(1) I am sorry for my rudeness!
(2) I am very sorry for my rudeness outside my Native Land!
(3) I am sorry that so many CEOs are idiots!

(4) Bonus: And if it had been a Hospital CEO gathering, I would have added, "I'm sorry that you kill so many people."

I Hate MBAs/Redux

Just a thought: Who, in their Right Mind would grow up desiring to be a "Master" of "Administration"? (E.g.: "I can file faster than you can! And prove it! After all, I'm a Master of ADMINISTRATION!")

Whoops, there I go again! I don't "hate" MBAs. I just bloody well wonder what kinda person would want to be a "master" of "administration"—when, say, you might have become a Snowboard Instructor at Stratton! (Or at least if you are determined to be an "MBA," join me and become a Master Bullshit Artist! Or better yet, MBAWGTFTCPLLACCEOI—MasterBullshitArtistWhoGetsToFlyToCoolPlacesLikeLisbonAndCallCEOsIdiots.)

New Economy Biz Degree Programs

Did I share this with you before? (Peter?) I do believe in advanced education! Incl BizEducation! So while I'd dump the MBA, I'd add-substitute the following 6 degree programs, or some such:

MMM1 (Master of Metaphysical Management)
MMM2 (Master of Metabolic Management)
MGLF (Master of Great Leaps Forward)
MTD (Master of Talent Development)
W/Mw"GTD"w/oC (Woman/Man who "Gets Things Done" without Certificate)
DE (Doctor of Enthusiasm)

(See a bit more on this in my "REI.500" "master" PP presentation.)

Gettin' High On Blogging!

Been Boston-Zurich-Boston-Lisbon-London (Boston, tomorrow a.m.) in last 10 days. My "high" for these stressful (many, many miles) times is the Holy Shit Awesome Comments that you have offered!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mucho blessings!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cool Friend: Whiteley

Sharon Whiteley is the CEO of ThirdAge, a Boston-based online content, marketing, and research company focused exclusively on serving the needs of Baby Boomers and midlife adults. Speaking about her book, she said, "We started from the vantage point of the investor, but [The Old Girls' Network] soon morphed itself into a book for entrepreneurs—or anybody else for that matter—that had the dream of wanting to create an enterprise, regardless of whether it was a solo-shop or a venture-backed opportunity." Read the interview.

Bespoke Blogging!

A comment to Erik's 01.11 post on blogging led me to www.englishcut.com. Love (!) the idea of an English bespoke tailor blogging! Hey, bizblogging is bespoke marketing, eh?

I'm Not in Vermont!

Getting our winter dose of -20ºF, finally. (Though small beer compared to MN's -54ºF, w/o windchill added in.) But as for me, I wandered the lovely streets of Lisbon/Lisboa in shirtsleeves @ 60ºF yesterday afternoon.

Sorry I'm Not Home

Cold aside, I'm sorry I'll not be near the tube today for the Inauguration. I was appalled at an AOL poll that shows most won't watch a bit of it. I don't care who you voted for, a peaceful democratic transition (an American inaugural) is still one of the world's great wonders. If you don't like George W. Bush, watch for George Washington's sake!

Event Slides: Lisbon

Tom's in Lisbon, speaking to the 1st Congresso Comercio Moderno (APED/Associaco Portugueso de Empresas de Distribuiaco). You can download the slides here.

Ten Years in the Making

This slide took 10 years to create! (It came together on a Baahstan-Zurich redeye last night.) As you may know, I'm newly/oceanically keen on "PSF = Everything." Now I've got my equivalent to the Pine & Gilmore "experience ladder"—namely, the "PSF Ladder." As an added twist, I've invented "Lovemark Leadership" as the BASE. I know it's cryptic, but I especially think it melds Our Vision with where we want to Take Our Clients. Comments???

Chasing Its Own Tail

The biggest news in blogworld these days is ... itself. Halley Suitt alerted us to this post about the controversy. The question is has there been impropriety where people got paid for blogging. To my mind, the bigger issue is blogging vs. journalism. But I don't think anybody reads blogs with the same mindset as they do a researched, (presumably) fact-checked article in a reputable publication. Something I can enthusiastically agree with, however, is this post from Devin Reams on Blogosphere News. He uses Tom's endorsement of blogging as validation. And the circle is complete, because his post brings you back to our site.

WSJ Notices Internal Marketing

Today's (1/18) Wall Street Journal carries a story on page B1 talking about how companies are focusing more of their marketing efforts on internal audiences.

No doubt. Of course. Getting employees to "Be the Brand" is critical for success, because every employee in a company has an effect on the customer's brand experience, even if it is an indirect effect. (See chapter 6 in my book Brand Harmony for more, or this article from the tompeters.com Brand Cafe archives.)

The WSJ article focuses on how advertising agencies are driving this change. The headline on the continuing page reads "More Companies Recruit Big Ad Shops To Pitch To Their Own."

My question: Are ad agencies the ones leading this change? Should companies turn to their ad agencies for help with internal marketing? How will ad agencies address this challenge? Will it be the right way? I'll reveal my opinion in the comments, once a few people post.

Wanna Buy A Car?

Hi guys. I'm Halley—a blogger, a writer, a mom—and last fall I was a car salesman for about three weeks. I talked a dealer into letting me try out the Internet Sales Person job at a local car dealership. I sold six cars the first "official" week, after a week of intense training. I got an incredible insider's view. So this is all about why you CAN'T buy a car on the internet and you should give it up now.

[read more]

MY WORK = MY LIFE

Here's a comment I posted, FYI:

I WANT TO "COME CLEAN" ON THIS ONE. IT'S A SET-UP OF SORTS. I LOVE MY WIFE, DEARLY. I LOVE MY 2 BOYS. (AND, FOR THAT MATTER, MY MOM & 3 DOGS.) BUT, FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE, MY "WORK" IS MY "PLAY"—THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF MY "AUTHENTIC" (NOTICE I STUCK THAT WORD IN THE POLL) HAPPINESS. I WAS ON THE WAY TO THE "COUNTRY STORE" TO PICK UP MY SUNDAY PAPER, AND SOMEONE GOING ABOUT 25 MPH WAS AHEAD OF ME. I PASSED. (DOUBLE YELLOW LINE.) THIS PERSON ALSO WENT INTO THE STORE. SHE SAID TO ME, "WHAT'S THE HURRY?" I DIDN'T MEAN TO BE RUDE OR ARROGANT (WAS I BOTH?), BUT I SURPRISED MYSELF WHEN I REPLIED (NOT "SNAPPED"), "I'VE GOT TO CHANGE THE WORLD." WELL, ARROGANT OR NOT, I DO. MY WORK MAY NOT MATTER, BUT IF NOT IT WON'T DAMN WELL BE FOR LACK OF TRYING! (AND, YES, THAT MAKES ME LUCKY.) (AND, PER STEVE Y, IT'S A CONSCIOUS CHOICE!)

What Matters!

"Hipness is the only asset that matters."—Paul Saffo, futurist, on Apple

100 Ways to Succeed #44:

Hipness!

Are you ... Hip? If not, what ... EXACTLY ... do you plan to do about it?

Whole Foods Redux!

How good is good? Or, how Excellent is Excellent? Re Whole Foods Market: My colleague (and co-blogger) Erik Hansen tells me he never orders steak at restaurants anymore, because the result always pales beside the steaks he buys at Whole Foods. As for me, Susan & I are looking at buying a house in Boston. We loved one we looked at, but it had a small kitchen. Susan, a great cook, said to me, "Who cares? We'll be buying all our stuff prepared at Whole Foods."

Whole Foods = Lovemark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Little stuff" that Matters. A Lot!

Great email from ... JUDITH SINNARD. (smarteplans.com) Judith has a "little" idea. She provides eServices to the Houston real estate community. She measures rooms at a MLS home, provides at a Click dimensions thereof ... as well as photos of each room. Little deal? Big deal? The average days-on-market for one of "her" homes was 33 last year, compared to the average of 82 days. "Little" idea. Big industry! Big difference!

"Little stuff" That Matters, Part II

In a push email, my partners at Better Life Media provide this Tip yesterday: "Fix your voice message now! If you claim to be different from your competition, a GREAT place to start is your recorded message."—Jeffery Gitomer, The Little Red Book of Selling.

(Hey, I also love the book!)

100 Ways to Succeed #45:

Voice Message Mania!

How Cool-Different is your Voice Message?

Who, me?

Came across, stuck in a book, the torn-out cover story from Time, October 25, "The God Gene." There was a quiz therein, "How Spiritual Are You?" I imagined I'd be in the lower quartile. But to my surprise, I scored 15 (out of 20), "highly spiritual, a real mystic." Ye gads! Here's Question #1, to which I instantly answered "Yes": "I often feel so connected to the people around me that it is like there is no separation between us." Duh! Of course! That's what my "speaking career" is all about!! That's why I'm here on earth!!

100 Ways to Succeed #46:

Melded To Your Client!
Are you "one with your client"? To succeed—make a Dramatic Difference—you must be. Answer, if this sounds "too much": You must find something to do that you ... LOVE. If you are "in love," then the odds go ... WAY ... up that you'll be "as one" with your Client/s.

(Hmmm. Is there Something above "Lovemark"? Namely, "as one with"?)

If You Want To Find Oil, You Must Drill Wells

(The "Do It" Imperative)

Was on the treadmill yesterday. (Hey, it was -5ºF outside.) My straining eye caught the cover of a book I'd surveyed for In Search of Excellence; it's The Hunters, by John Masters, a successful Canadian O & G wildcatter. Here are some of the excerpts I underlined 25 years ago:

"This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing how few oil people really understand that you only find oil if you drill wells. You may think you're finding it when you're drawing maps and studying logs, but you have to drill."

NB: BUT YOU HAVE TO DRILL!

"I don't know what it is that makes an oil finder. But while I can't define it, I can generally recognize it when I see it. Mostly, it's attitude. Focus. Intensity. It seems to be associated with a fierce desire to know everything, to rub your nose in every piece of information. And yet there is a playfulness about the expert finders. A sense of fun. Beware of the too serious man."

"A really new idea at first has only one believer."

(Selfishly, I cherish the book's inscription that I also reread, "To Tom Peters, who knows all about these ideas of how to make a company work." Thanks, John. Wow!)

100 Ways to Succeed #47:

Just Drill!

Drill more wells than the next guy!

100 Ways to Succeed #48:

"Playful" Rules!

Beware the "too serious man [woman]."

100 Ways to Succeed #49:

Freaks Rule!

Listen to the "one believer."

Badvertising: Logix

Driving into Houston this evening from Geo Bush Airport ... I see a billboard for a company called "Logix," presumably some sort of IT services organization. The billboard copy read:

Our CEO is a bigger geek than their CEO.

Gee ... I can't wait to hear more.

(2 miles later, I see a great billboard: It was for an animal shelter, promoting pet adoption. There was a very cute picture of a cat, looking right at you, with copy that read "It's ok. You can come in and just take a look.")

Am I Nuts?

Time last week ran "The Science of Happiness" as cover story. Psychology Today's current cover is "True Happiness." No surprise, friends & family are the greatest source of happiness. (The message is a lot more sophisticated than that—e.g., friends top family, in many cases.) But what struck me was the uniform absence of work-as-a-centerpiece-of-happiness. Was it the researchers' biases? Is it the "Dilbert Factor"—most people think work sucks? Regardless, work is what we spend the most time doing—so it is obviously front & center in this issue, whether for good or for ill; which makes its absence surprising, to the point of nuttiness. No?

Check out today's new poll on this topic.

Happy MLK Day!

I feel especially associated with this magnificent holiday. I grew up in Annapolis, and as a boy I experienced "Colored" and "White" toilets in gas stations down at the docks, which had been so important in the build-up to the revolution in 1775. Hence, I am especially aware of the amazing distance we have traveled. Also, in my professional life, Dr. King is such a potent, close-to-home reminder of the power of one person's will, against all odds, to change the world. At a more personal level still, he was one helluva speaker—I listen to tapes of his key speeches every year, and I am invariably moved to tears. Hence, I'd urge you to take a literal moment today to reflect not only on the glory of the Civil Rights movement, but also on the ability of a single soul with a potent Dream to move mountains. (Also a doff of the cap to LBJ, who said to Bill Moyers when he signed the Voting Rights bill, "We're losing the South [for Democrats] for several generations." Not many leaders of either party make such sacrifices of politics for principle.)

Click? Or Clack?

No, this is not an automotive problems site. But if there's one thing more important to those of us in snowy states than the health of our kids, spouse, & computer, it's the quality of our ... WINDSHIELD WIPERS. I've tried every brand I can, taken the advice of everyone I can buttonhole, and still I'm not happy. Any "awesome" suggestions?

Shameless Hawking!

A professional colleague of Susan's was at lunch yesterday. He owns a quite successful high-end home-furnishings niche company. Somehow (hmmmm?) the conversation turned to ... BLOGGING. I found myself declaiming, full flower, for an hour on the "utmost importance and urgency" of Blogging, telling him in no uncertain terms that, especially in a high-end niche business, Blogging is "the premier way" to have "intimate conversations" with his Clients. Funny thing, I believe it!

100 Ways to Succeed #39:

Blog As If Your Life Depended On It!

Blogging, I firmly believe, is the premier emergent marketing-brandbuilding-lovemarkcreating tool of our times! It is the premier way to have intimate-engaging-informative-WOWing "conversations" with Clients and prospects! This all goes double for small enterprises and niche enterprises; and goes triple for the Professional Services; and works wonders in the Public Sector as well.

Do you see Blogging in these exalted lights? If not, why not? Please ... Blog-As-If-Your-Professional-Success-Depended-On-It. (Hint: I think it does.)

Begin today! Appoint yourself Chief Blogging Officer. Or, better yet, Chief Intimate Client Conversations Officer!

Lucky Kid!

I was a lucky kid. And adult. I grew up with the emergence of Johnny Unitas-Artie Donovan's BALTIMORE Colts. Then headed West just in time to be around for John Madden's Oakland Raiders at their peak & for the full run of Bill Walsh-Joe Montana's SF 49ers. Then I moved to New England just as Bill Belichick was taking the Patriots to another level. My "streak" started with the '57 Colts ... and continues 48 years later. I've gotten a thousand thousand things wrong in my life, but if you're trying to predict future NFL franchise excellence, just watch where I move! As I said, I'm a lucky kid! (Addendum: As an old B'more boy, with my heart at least in part in Philly, I do hope that the 4th time is the charm for the Eagles this Sunday!)

Service (EXPERIENCE!) Excellence Found!

There is Excellence outside the NFL. And Service Excellence in 2005! Three TP Awards: Susan & I, part-time Bostonians these days, shopped Saturday at Whole Foods Market/Boston. WOW! Food ... AWESOME. Presentation ... AWESOME. Staff Attitude & Knowledge ... AWESOME. "Last Impression" (help with bags in an urban setting) ... AWESOME. Talk about "Experience Marketing" ... "Dream Merchants" ... "Lovemark"! These guys top Starbucks by a mile in my book!

Next up: Apple Store CambridgeSide Galleria. What a show! The "product," of course, is ... AWESOME. The ambience is ... AWESOME. The Staff Attentiveness & EXPERTISE & Teaching Skill are ... AWESOME. And on the Experience Front, Apple runs a blizzard of Cool Activities. (Last Saturday, for instance: 9-10am, "Getting Started Workshop;" 1-130pm, "iLife '04 Presentation;" 3-330pm, "iPod & iTunes Presentation;" 5-530pm, "GarageBand Presentation." On weekday evenings there are often advanced presentations.)

Finally, another nod to my 2004MVP, Commerce Bank; my colleague Ilene Fischer hung out at a Commerce call center last week ... trust me, it ain't your father's call center! Staffers are not measured on length of calls—they're encouraged to spend all the time they need with Clients. There are no voice messages or menus—all Clients are directly handled by Human Beings all-the-time ... and yet the response time is an average of 16 seconds, half that of the industry. All this lavish service, and they manage to grow almost 50 percent a year ... organically! (Oh yes, and their use of "WOW!" makes me look like a little leaguer!)

I'm VERY VERY BIG (as you know) on the DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE between "service" and "experience." These 3 exemplars are Grand Testimony to that ... DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE!!

100 Ways to Succeed #40:

"Experience-To-Die-For!" or Bust!

Does your "service offering"—no matter what your environment or "degree of empowerment"—match the Whole Foods-Apple Commerce "DD [Dramatic Difference] Experience Standard"?

Please discuss today with a friend the parameters of your "experience provided." Please take one baby-step tomorrow to improve your "experience provided." Repeat ... FOREVER.

(Oh yes ... and use the term DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE. P-L-E-A-S-E!)

Last Impressions Come First!

Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman (a psychologist who won the Economics Nobel) tells us, as reported in the February 2005 issue of Psychology Today, that our memories are very selective. In particular, no matter how extended an event (party, commercial transaction), we form our view and make our evaluation based—with dramatic skew—on the "most intense moments" & the "final moments." This is yet another Compelling Argument for ... EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT! (For all of us! See immediately above.) The "final moments" evidence is particularly startling; e.g., one goes to a brilliant, 4-hour dinner party ... yet three months later we only remember that two guests exchanged heated remarks on the way out the door. (Etc.)

100 Ways to Succeed #41:

Plan-Manage "Last Impressions-Experiences" AGGRESSIVELY

The idea here is the opposite of "no screw ups." Of course we don't want, per the above, anything to "go wrong" at the Experience Exit Stage. More important, we want something ... MEMORABLE, COMPELLING, EMOTIONAL ... to be our Planned Exit Strategy. The way, say, the Doc walks the Patient to the door (rather than pointing distractedly to the Billing Desk, while simultaneously picking up the next Patient's folder) is the Determining Factor in the Patient's Impression ... more, actually, than a good or bad diagnosis.

So ... WORK ON IT ... ASSIDUOUSLY!

"Gasp-worthy!"

As an alumnus, I received an email from McKinsey about its response to the SEAsian tragedy. I read it, nodded, and cast it aside. (But did not "delete" for some unknown reason.) I returned to it a few hours later—and was moved to send McKinsey's managing partner an email. I said that the response was "perfectly adequate," but I added that business has a tawdry rep these days and that McKinsey is the premier Counselors to Top Management ... so, I chided, I saw it as a missed opportunity that McKinsey's response failed to "make me gasp by its audacity."

No surprise, I got no response from McKinsey's top dog. But I also copied my old McK pal & In Search of Excellence coauthor, Bob Waterman—who offered his hearty support. (Thanks, as always, Bob.)

Forget McKinsey (never a bad idea). The Bigger Point—see the above also—is that our "responses" to tragedy & opportunity alike ought to aim to "make people gasp" at their audacity. Agree?

100 Ways to Succeed #42:

Is It "Gasp-worthy"?

Will your plan for addressing today's "mundane" task make others "gasp" at its audacity? If not, re-do!

The "Eye-sparkle Factor"

Some people's eyes have an engaging, infectious "sparkle." Some don't. Hire [only?] those who "have it"?

I was lecturing on "talent selection"—and the use of unconventional measures for so doing. At a break I made the following comment to a youthful Participant: "Suppose you & I were opening the restaurant of our dreams. We'd both put in $75,000 ... effectively our life's savings. We were 'betting the farm.' We had a great idea, a very good location, a terrific chef. Now the time had come to hire waiters & waitresses. Numerous applicants had satisfactory+ 'restaurant experience,' but several didn't. One young woman [man] in particular was a rank amateur—but had the most compelling 'sparkle' in her/his eye. How would that 'sparkle' rank in your hire-no hire consideration?" No great surprise, we both agreed, despite a 30-year experience differential, that the "sparkle" pretty much ruled. (Or some like measures—e.g., hustle, enthusiasm.) Fact is, the Participant in question ran a 40-person bit of an IS/IT department. And my real goal was to urge her to use the "Eye-sparkle Factor" in IS/IT hiring almost to the same degree as in "our" choice of a waiter/waitress!

100 Ways to Succeed #43:

Hire Using the "Eye-sparkle Factor"!

HR. IS/IT. Finance. Engineering. No matter. Hire for "eye sparkle"! Believe it!

Now That's Using Your Head ...

How much is your head, specifically your forehead, worth? For one college student, who offered his forehead as a billboard-for-hire, a $30,000 fee, garnered from an eBay auction for the space, will provide funding for college and other things. Auctioning his "wares"—a removable tattoo—on eBay paid off for him. For those of us who wonder why we didn't think of that first and who may be researching how deep the market is on this one, consider this perspective—play out of your head to earn money with your head, even your forehead.

How could you leverage your head to get into the game and generate profitable returns?

Kudos to Acela!

Foggy in NYC today, airports up & down. Fortunately I made the Boston-NYC-Boston round trip by Acela. I love trains. (Generational?) And with airports so difficult, Acela is my BOWASH choice. I don't mind the time ... there's no better place to do a quiet 3 or so hours of work.

Penn Station tip: Even if you have virtually no luggage, find a Redcap and offer a $20 tip to take you down to the train a couple of minutes early—I almost always get my preferred seat, a solo with a table in 1st class. (There's only one.) Hey, Steve Yastrow, I tend to find Acela staff quite friendly.

Go Neil!

Was on Fox with Neil Cavuto in New York. He's a terrific interviewer and a great person. Check out his book, More Than Money—truly inspiring. Wal*Mart was the story Thursday, and Neil cornered me; I mostly waffled. I'm a Wal*Mart fan by and large—I simply hope the facts in their new ads hold up to blogger scrutiny; I'd like to believe they paint an accurate picture. One thing is clear: At Wal*Mart's size, they'll be in the crosshairs from now 'til kingdom come.

WOW! (Yikes?)

Ended up reading the latest Atlantic almost cover-to-cover. Richard Clarke, the former anti-terrorist chief, has a hair-raising piece, "America Attacked: The Sequel. Looking Back from 2011—an Imagined History." To be sure Mr Clarke takes a few expected, perfunctory digs at the President; but mostly I think the story is all too plausible, and not very political. Quite frankly, I think one almost has an obligation to read & ponder this story.

Fortune Comes Aboard!

The last Fortune (01.10.05) features "Ten Tech Trends to Watch in 2005." No. 1: "Why You Can't Ignore Bloggers." (Welcome aboard, Big Media—Dan Rather Not sends his regards from retirement!) In a related note, the current New Yorker has a brilliantly reported, eye-popping piece, "Battle Lessons: What the Generals Don't Know." It's a report on the way in which junior officers in Iraq are using the Web to teach each other—in real time—the tricks of survival in modern urban warfare. The boomer senior leaders are not the Web fiends the Gen-X junior officers are; moreover the claim is made (accurately, I think) that Gen-X officers are directionally less hierarchical than their boomer bosses—and more inclined to figure things out for themselves regardless of received doctrine.

Can we say: There are two kinds of people: Those who Blog, and those who don't?

Real Estate Rules! Eagles Don't Flock!

Biz books tend to predictably focus on the Apples & Microsofts & GEs & Southwests & Wal*Marts ... not the "mundane" world of real estate & real-estate services. Yet the industry is a monster and an economic bellwether of the first order. The 800-pound gorilla, with 100,000 agents, 32-consecutive years of growth and about $400 billion in annual transactions, is RE/MAX. And now there's a highly instructive book on their wildly successful origins & practices: Everybody Wins, by Phil Harkins and Keith Hollihan. Founder Dave Liniger, who upset every apple cart in sight with his contrarian ideas, belongs in the same league as a Sam Walton or Jack Welch, as I see it. I love it when enormous, overlooked (by the "guru establishment") corners of the economy grab the limelight. Big "secret": Hire only the Best ... and kill yourself to find them & support them. It'd be no surprise, except that it remains, still, the exception to the rule. (Contrarian idea, in the age of team mania: "Eagles don't flock.") RE/MAX considers themselves a "Life Success Company" ... not a real estate company—and they act the role brilliantly. I put together a few slides from the book—for your perusal. (And thanks, Acela again, for the live power jacks.)

Check It Out!

I had a superb day with Swiss colleagues. I want to share the PowerPoint results, that I've put together as REI.1day. I am comfortable with this overall Statement of Purpose for me in 2005. Please review & give me your feedback.

Professional Service Firm/"PSF" as Organizing Principle for Everything!

I believe the personal & organizational mantra of our times is "Add (Lots of) Value or Die!" I further believe that the best way to think about "all this" is in terms of Professional Services Firms. (What else is IBM or UPS today, or surely tomorrow?) I've been jabbering about "PSFs" for 5 years ... but only recently concluded that they explain "positively everything." (Maybe it's the influence of my Christmas reading: Ken Wilber's A Theory of Everything.) In any event, the "PSF Is Everything" notion is taking root, and a First Product is our new Special Presentation: "Re-imagine2005: The 'PSF' Is Everything." Feedback?

Boomer Debunking

The romanticized stereotype of Baby Boomers is that we were all conceived when daddy came home from WWII, were raised by June Cleaver and then embarked on lives of free love and war protests. Certainly anyone who really thinks about it knows that can't all be true, but as businesses and governments are figuring out how to deal with us in our old age, it would be a good idea to get over the myths and understand the real facts. A few examples:
-While the oldest boomers are approaching 60, the youngest are barely 40.
-Even in the '60s, we weren't all political radicals. One-third of the early boomers served in Vietnam and the majority of southern youth resisted integration just as fiercely as their parents did.
-Despite the civil rights movement and women's lib, the disparity of education and income levels between boomers of different races and genders is still huge.

A study of baby boomers at midlife by researchers at Duke University highlights the differences within the various ethnic, economic and age groups of the generation. Elizabeth Hughes, one of the authors of the study, believes that the country's current divisiveness is a result of the enormous diversity of the life experiences of the boomers. Co-author Angela O'Rand warns, "If we are worried about the future as the boomers age, we need to be prepared for a very, very heterogeneous group of people."

Amen, sister.

Fem-Tech Is Big Business

Last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was a technophile's dream. Some of the products are available now; some are "coming soon"; and others, such as Samsung's $40,000 80-inch plasma TV, are clearly not meant for mere mortals.

Since women are spending about $55 billion a year on the latest electronics, the Technology Is A Girl's Best Friend showcase had its own awards, based on "form, function, overall ease of use, and how these products enhance the daily lives of female consumers." GE's GlamCam, a portable webcam/digital camera/mirror, made the list of honorees, but someone had the good sense to put the Roomba in a different awards category.

At the Consumer Electronics Association site, you can browse through gizmos such as a movie player for your iPod, Sony's portable PlayStation, and video eyewear, and read complete transcripts of keynote speeches by Bill Gates, Carly Fiorina, Craig Barrett and others.

More Blog Stuff

Our friends over at Change This have just released their latest set of manifestos, one of which is a Beginner's Guide to Business Blogging, by Debbie Weil. Plus there's a fun piece to help you with the obnoxious cell phone users in your life. On a related front, the Financial Times reports that General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz has set up his own blog "to comment on GM's designs and strategy." And don't forget: seats still available at the blog business summit January 24-25 in Seattle, Washington.

Event Slides: Interlaken

Tom at the Alpensymposium Interlaken for Griwa Consulting in Switzerland. You can download the slides here, or go to the slides page. The first event of a new year, as he said yesterday. There's only one entry on our presentations page for 2005, but, from experience, I know that the list fills up fast. The page will not look empty for long.

On the Road Again

Interlaken. Switzerland. Global warming? I don't know ... but no snow here in the Alps. On the other hand, surrounded by the most gorgeous peaks imaginable! Temperature about 35ºF, which doesn't deter the Swiss from gathering at outdoor cafes for a 4pm beer or glass of wine. (Schnapps?) Para-gliders gracefully landing in the park across from my hotel. Altogether, um, Swiss. Serene. An oasis? Gas about 6 bucks a gallon next door ... and yet people continue to cope. If ours were $6 ... we'd doubtless not be fighting in Iraq. (On the other hand we'd be fighting at home!)

"It" begins! On the road again! (I figure tomorrow's speech-seminar will be about #2,601 since I started "this stuff" in 1978.) Happy 2005!

A Worrisome Reminder of Tech-dependence

Board my BA flight in Boston last night, headin' for London & Zurich. Set up my computer, and prepare for a necessary 6-hour work session. Slide updates. Thinking-via-PowerPoint. Etc.

Whoops.
Crash.
Big time.
Not a peep out of my Gateway.
Go through my entire repertoire of diagnostics.
Nothing.
Stone DEAD.

And my B/U Dell is in my checked baggage ... and I haven't tested it in 6 months. What do I do? PANIC. Not "panic," but ... PANIC. As in, full-fledged, clinical Panic Attack. Sweaty. Heart palpitations. Will #2 work? Just how backed-up am I? ("Mostly" doesn't somehow feel all that re-assuring.) My desktop on my Gateway represents, I'd guess several thousand hours of work, perfectly arranged. Oh shit!

Arrive London. Want to get some patches going ASAP. Try to place a call on my new, super-duper (PRICEY!) Verizon world-phone. Access denied. OH SHIT.

Hey, here I am in Interlaken working via my B/U Dell. Nonetheless, what transpired—physically & emotionally—was a startling reminder of Tech-Dependence, 2005 Style! And I'm not so happy about that. There are of course the easy fixes. Redouble my back-up practices. Keep #2 in my carry-on, and check it routinely. Stay pissed off at Verizon—nothing new there. But in a way that's the least of it. I don't like being this wed to my gear—and I'm no Gearhead. But what is one to do? Actually, I worked with Pen & Notebook on a paper outline for a couple of hours—and did some good work. Maybe I'm in a PowerPoint Rut? Hmmm. I'll think on that.

Blog Business Conference

I have just signed up to go to the Blog Business Conference in Seattle on Jan 24, 25. I think you should go, if you blog or even if you're on the periphery of blogworld. (Web address is www.blogbusinesssummit.com.)

For Your Convenience

Last week we pointed you to Tom's journal post on AOL. This week we offer it as a convenient PDF file to be downloaded here. Subject: Attitude. In a few pages Tom encapsulates every word he (and several others) have said over the past five years. He's named it "Manifesto1.2005." I think we'll be seeing more of these over the coming months. Start your collection now.

United Ugh-lines

Off to the airport, have to fly United today. Must admit—I'm dreading it. What stupidness will they show me today?

How's This Headline?

Over the last few days we've had a great debate about a headline for a "Dove Massage Beads" ad (see below). Here's a story of another ad headline for your comments:

As many of you know, the funeral home industry has gone through a period of intense consolidation, with a handful of big companies taking over mom & pop operations. Chicago Jewish Funerals is a new, small, privately-held company that has done very well over the past 5 or so years since they appeared on the scene. Their brand messages focus on the advantages of dealing with a smaller, local company whose owners are members of the community.

They recently ran an ad with this headline:

Big corporations are part of our life.
Do they need to be part of our death?

What do you think of this one? (I'll reveal my opinion once we have some comments.)

Stickin' My Neck (Way) Out!

January 7. Time for my "Book of the Year2005" picks!
Am I nuts?
Doubtless.
But if nuts, at least determined & passionate!

The Art of Business: Make All Your Work a Work of Art, by Stan Davis and David McIntosh. Stan, the lead author, is an old pal. (And, like me, not so young a man. But ... very young at heart ... which is all that matters!) Most interesting, Stan was a "tough-minded" "strategy guy" when I first met him. Now ... ART? Yup! The authors persuasively argue that we are entering an economy which will value—insist upon!—a new way of looking at value creation. They call it moving from an emphasis on "economic flow" (input-output) to "artistic flow." The altered nature of enterprise, the "four elements" of new business thinking: "See yourself as an artist." "See your work as a work of art." "See your customers as an audience." "See your competition as teachers." Another (very) hardnosed guy, economist and current Harvard President Larry Summers blurbed the book this way: "The Art of Business is a good antidote to all the business-as-war books." Amen! Nice job, Stan (& David)! (Incidentally—incidentally??—the pocket-sized book is but 202 pages long.) (Interesting how all these "gurus of hard"—e.g. Stan Davis, Gary Hamel, David Maister—come to put People & Passion first as they age. Hmmm.)

Rules of the Red Rubber Ball, by Kevin Carroll, is a gorgeous, gorgeously designed, pocket-sized 100-page book. I heard that Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher bought copies of Who Moved My Cheese? for each of his 25,000+ employees. If I were running a 25,000-person company today, I'd surely buy Rules for all my employees! (And, hey, thanks Jack Covert, CEO of 800-CEO-Read, for sending the book along.) Kevin followed his dreams from a broken family to, eventually, a senior position at Nike where his job is to inspire ... he says some call him Nike's "sports evangelist." (Only at Nike, eh? Love it!) At any rate this book—so brilliantly executed that I plan to take it on the road as a personal Talisman—is arranged around 8 rules: "Commit to it." "Seek out encouragers." "Work out your creative muscle." "Prepare to shine." "Speak up." "Expect the unexpected." "Maximize the day." Nice! (PS: You're gonna have to buy the book to discover the guiding RRB metaphor.) (NB: The glory of this book's design cements my already strong sense that I'll never publish ... ANYTHING ... 10 words or 10,000 ... that is not driven by design as much as content. In an Age of Aesthetics, Design Is Content! Okay, okay ... so McLuhan got there first.)

The Virtuoso: Face to Face With 40 Extraordinary Talents, by Ken Carbone with photos by Howard Schatz. My pal Robyn Waters, Target's original "guru of cool" who now runs her own show (RW Trend LLC), gave Susan & me this breathtaking book as a gift. Wow! The photography is as awe-inspiring as are the interviews with a variety of folks from comedian Robin Williams to explorer Sylvia Earle to stock picker Peter Lynch. (If the book weren't so darned big, I'd also carry it with me as co-Talisman.)

Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity, by David Whyte. This 2001 book (no mind, it's new to me—embarrassingly) is authored by an oxymoron: Whyte is a poet who spends his days working with corporations—to great acclaim. Like my other choices, Crossing aims to set us on a course toward Work That Matters (& Dignifies & Inspires & Aspires to Excellence). (Thanks in this case to my friend Roxanne Davis for insisting that I belatedly discover D. Whyte.) This inspiring tome begins with a wonderful, poetic (obviously) epigraph:

"You have set sail on another ocean
"without star or compass
"going where the argument leads
"shattering the certainties of centuries."

Janet Kalven, "Respectable Outlaw"

I can't, in good faith, promise you that I won't find other stars-of-print this year. I can, however, promise you that if you read & absorb & bask in these four books you will up the odds of 2005 being a Remarkable Year ... dramatically. So, c'mon ... let's get on with Shattering the Certainties of Centuries!

Quote of the Day: We Are In Charge!

Consider: "Whatever be the qualifications of your tutors, your improvement must chiefly depend on yourselves. They cannot think or labor for you, they can only put you in the best way of thinking and laboring for yourselves. If therefore you get knowledge you must acquire it by your own industry. You must form all conclusions and all maxims for yourselves, from premises and data collected and considered by yourself. And it is the great object of [our educational institutions] to remove every bias the mind may be under, and to give the greatest scope for true freedom of thinking."

Don't you wish—as I dearly do—that this were written in stone above the formal entranceway to our federal Department of Education? Alas, it is not!

Oh, so you wonder what hippie educator penned-spoke the above? Answer:

The renowned scientist Joseph Priestly.
Date: 1794.
Occasion: speech at the dedication of New College, London.

Talk about timeless/timely!
In an Age of Creativity!
(Which this is.)

If in Doubt, Change It. Now. Not Tomorrow.

Yes, I may well change my mind about MV (Most Valuable) book picks. But is changing one's mind a sin? NOT IN CHANGING TIMES! The sin, instead, is staying the course when you're on the wrong course ... in increasingly intolerant times.

Message: There's a reason Wal*Mart keeps us all in awe.
THEY'RE DAMN GOOD!
MAKE THAT ... ABSURDLY GOOD!

"Agile giant" tops my list of "probable oxymorons." No way! Thence, I read ... with dropping jaw ... the 5 January New York Times' minute-by-minute account of how the UAG (Ultimate Agile GIANT) adjusted ... strategically ... in literally hours ... to the troubled pre-Christmas economic climate. Of course it's a long-playing Wal*Mart saga of the matchless use of IS/IT. But the "soft side" of the tale is even more impressive than the technology part. That is, an executive corps processing ambiguous information at the speed of light ... & making strategic decisions at the speed of light ... & implementing those decisions at the speed of light ... & involving everyone down to the sales clerks (in a 1.5-million person outfit). Legendary war strategist John Boyd (see Boyd by Robert Coram) says victory goes to those who most rapidly transit their "OODA Loops" (OODA = Observe. Orient. Decide. Act.); OODA champs disorient their opponents—something Wal*Mart has been doing for four decades now. Just for laughs, can you imagine the new Kmart/Sears combine accomplishing this? As I said, just for laughs!

Thanks, Teri! (I Guess.)

I was in residence on the Na Pali coast of Kaua'i for New Year's. My neighbor is Teri Tico—celebrated social activist (Save Our Seas, etc.), renowned trial lawyer, champion wind surfer. She sidled up to me at a cocktail party and said, "So, Tom, what are you going to do to change the world this year?"

How in the hell does one respond to that?!

I have no immediate (hence glib) answer, but it did lead to my 2-part NYResolution2005:

TomResolution2005 (full year): Every project, small or large, this year will have to answer the question, "Does this change the world?" HP ran a banner ad, "HAVE YOU CHANGED CIVILIZATION TODAY?" I'll make that the first & last question I ask myself each day!

TomResolution2005 (within the next 10 minutes): I will be "hall monitor" for my attitude concerning each & every human contact I have this year, starting ... IMMEDIATELY. Do I exude Passion & Optimism & Connection of the sort that invariably engages others? (Hint: This applies as much to the 30-second exchange I have with a checkout clerk at Shaw's grocery in Manchester VT as it does in a speech to very senior execs in Zurich on January 11.)

Oh yeah, thanks Teri!

Laboratory of the States!

Thank God for Federalism! The Power of the "Laboratory of the States" is often underrated in an increasingly DC-centric nation. Thus I was delighted to see the following headline in yesterday's Boston Globe: "Stem Cell Bill Tops Agenda As Legislature Convenes." Massachusetts is heavily life sciences dependent ... and has no intention of passively slipping behind California, which passed (with the Republican Governator's strong support) a $3 billion stem cell research initiative in November. So while Washington kowtows to Jerry Falwell, the States, in direct competition with one another, experiment & legislate their 50 individual ways forward. California, which claims one out of every four public biotech companies within 35 miles of a UC (public!) campus, is back (!) and has been piling it on lately ... with leadership in tort reform, environmental protection, a minimum wage boost, etc.

BTW, the CA-MA initiatives are overdue if you subscribe to the recent BusinessWeek headline: "ASIA IS STEM CELL CENTRAL." Remember: This is the Life Sciences Century!

More China! (Always China!)

South Korea just became ... in 2004 ... earth's #1 ship builder, edging out Japan. Wow! Congrats! But China (where else!) is on schedule to strip SK of its hard-earned prize by 2015, the New York Times reported yesterday ("Korean Shipbuilders See China's Shadow").

The leader of the SKorean pack is the peerless engineering firm, Hyundai. And ... ta-da ... guess what Hyundai's new strategy is? You doubtless got it in one: Race up, up, up the value-added ladder. Hyundai is dropping oil tankers and ore carriers and pushing the likes of ultra-sophisticated LNG carriers and offshore oil platforms.

Check It Out!

Speaking of "value added" ... check out Home Depot's Website. The "big box" "retailer" now offers a staggering—and rapidly growing—array of home services. Having moved well along in its Management Systems and Store Refurbishment Revolutions, CEO Bob Nardelli is now vigorously turning to a value-added-through-services strategy that may eventually make the Orange Box the #1 "retailer" in the world—yes, surpassing Wal*Mart. (HD is already #2.)

Check 'Em Out!

The centerpiece of Re-imagine! is an airtight argument (as I see it) for rapidly "moving up" (re-imagining) the Value-added Proposition. It applies to IBM and UPS ... and, as we've just seen, Hyundai and Home Depot. One of my chief MV awards last year went to Kevin Roberts' LOVEMARK idea. I'm blown over by the rapidity with which this "trend" is coming to dominate business thinking. Yesterday's mail alone brought 2 manuscripts for endorsement—and I plan to endorse both. (Normally I endorse about 1 in 25 ms I receive.) The first comes from renowned futurist Martin Lindstrom (and features a Phil Kotler foreword). The title is BRANDsense: Build Powerful Brands through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound. The idea: beyond the stalwart USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and even the newer "ESP" (Emotional Selling Proposition) ... and toward the HSP (Holistic Selling Proposition). The book is well written, and the data-cases are compelling. On the one hand, there are a ton of good folks barking up this tree with everything from Lovemarks to Dream Marketing to Experience Marketing. So should I endorse "one more"? Yes! In my world, repetition rules ... and the variety of the packagers ups the odds that one or more will capture your attention ... and alter your worldview.

The twin to BRANDsense is Storytelling: Branding in Practice, by Klaus Fog, Christian Budtz & Baris Boylu—it's a detailed guide to the creation of powerful sagas that move customers to engage the brand. All these books might be clumsily titled "Beyond 'Branding' as We've Known It for the Last 50 Years." We are all scrambling—me too, e.g. this blog—and scramble we all must!

100 Ways to Succeed #38:

Re-visit/Re-imagine Your VA Proposition.
Due date: 15 January.

Hyundai. Home Depot. BRANDsense (BRANDsense: Build Powerful Brands through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound, by renowned futurist Martin Lindstrom). And another wonderful little manuscript-book I received, BEYOND CODE, by Rajesh Setty. Mr Setty, founder of the IT services firm CIGNEX Technologies (and a published novelist at age 13), makes an impassioned plea for each & every IT professional to pursue dramatic difference in his or her approach to projects and career. Hence my "demand": Before you tear off (electronically erase, no doubt) 2005 calendar page January 15 ... mercilessly (alone or with one or two close pals and/or, say, a Client) examine-challenge-evaluate your Value-added Proposition. Is it ... Compelling? Does it represent ... Dramatic Difference? And remember: "If you can't state your position in eight words or less, you don't have a position"—Seth Godin. (Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore is even tougher: "I make all the launch teams tell me what the [new] magazine's about in five [!!] words or less. You cannot run alongside millions of consumers and explain what you mean. It forces some discipline on you.")

A paragraph.
8 words.
5 words.
By 15JAN.
Dramatic Difference.

Okay?

Sustained Support Imperative!

In a 5 January New York Times op-ed, Nick Kristof reminds us that each month (!!) more people die of AIDS (240,000) and Malaria (165,000) than did in the tsunami. (Another 140K ... PER MONTH ... die of diarrhea.) These deaths are not "spectacular" except to families and loved ones, but are a stain on all our existences.

My (very small) suggestion: With 3 friends (initially) start a monthly lunch-time "study session" on such topics. We must begin by working on ourselves—our own sensibilities & sensitivities.

Badvertising Candidate? I Don't Get It.

Can someone explain this headline to me?

viagra overnight shipping no prescription I saw a small billboard over a train stairway today. It was for Dove Massage Beads. There was a picture of a bottle of Dove Massage Beads in the bottom right corner, with 50 or more purple spheres of various sizes arrayed over the ad. The purple spheres presumably represent beads of soap that massage your body.

The headline on the ad read:

One massage bead for every vanilla latte you've worn

Huh?

'Tis the Season for Giving Gifts that Keep on Giving

Most years, the season of giving and good will are long gone by the 3d day into the new year. We flock back to the daily double whether we labor inside or outside of the home. Within minutes, even nanoseconds, the positive effects of vacation seem to have dissipated into thin air. It's not just our imaginations—the afterglow of vacation is estimated to last a mere hour—and that's on a good Monday return—before our minds and bodies release the previous flood of stress hormones that surged through us before we beat feet for vacation. Is it any wonder that levels of depression soar in January? Here's the good news—this year we can keep on giving to those afflicted by the tsunami disaster including the heroes returning from rescue efforts with the victims (who are often afflicted with secondary traumatization from witnessing such terror). When you find yourself plunging to pre-vaca levels where stress makes us stupid or blue, turn on the juice to your computer and visit one of the sites cited by Tom and others that will offer you the chance of a lifetime—to give to those in need, a gift which, as we know, is better than anything we can wait around to get. 'Tis the season—what do you want to give to feel better?

Just Wait To See What Happens With Kmart

In May of 2002, Sears bought Land's End for $1.9 billion in cash, representing a 21% premium over the current share price.

Yesterday, as the snows were hitting Chicago and I became instantly aware of my need for a new winter coat, I took a quick right turn into a local mall and ran into Sears to see what kind of warm jackets they had.

The men's department had a great selection of winter coats, all on sale. (On January 5th, one week into winter, as a winter storm approached. Why were they marked down? See below.) There were many models of great looking Land's End jackets, all at great prices. I was pleasantly surprised with the selection.

I had lots of questions about the Land's End jackets, to make sure I got the lightest weight jacket for my needs. I asked a Sears store clerk for help who said, "They don't train us on any of that."

Luckily, there was an 800 number in the jackets, and I called Land's End on my cellphone. They were really helpful, but I kept getting cut off due to poor cell reception. I asked the same store clerk if I could use her phone to get answers from Land's End so I could buy a jacket and she said, "If it's toll free."

This is a really brilliant idea: Buy a company for a 21% premium so you can get their merchandise in your stores, and then make it a real hassle for your customers to buy that merchandise. And, be sure not to tell your employees how to sell it. How stupid.

At the time of the acquisition Sears CEO Alan Lacy said that the Land's End acquisition "will attract new shoppers ... who will connect with our apparel departments better than they would have in the past." Yes, Alan, this was a great connection.

Bloggers, Bloggers Everywhere

Apparently 2004 and 2005 will be the years of the blog. ABC News declared bloggers people of the year for 2004 and now Fortune lists blogging as one of the ten tech trends of the year in an article titled "Why There's No Escaping the Blog." And the New York Times weighed in yesterday with "Big Boost for Blogs in 2004." According to the article, the Merriam-Webster dictionary made "blog" the word of the year for 2004.

Old Habits Die Hard

Article in today's Boston Globe describing AARP's ad campaign and wondering when advertisers will catch on the fact that these old folks got lots of dough, to the tune of $400 billion spent last year.

Brand You, Front & Center

Tom's gig with Better Life Media/AOL Coaches is featured today on the AOL main screen, playing opposite GBush Sr & Bill Clinton's appointment as disaster relief chief fundraisers. The topic: Brand You for a Brand New Year (sorry—you must be logged in as an AOL member to see it). Check it out!

For all (non-AOLers included): Tom's journal entry on the same topic.