Monthly Archives: April 2013

Shouting doesn’t work

  You can no longer win by shouting, there is always someone who can should louder, longer, and more effectively. You win today by being genuinely useful. Those on the receiving end will tell others, who will tell others, and … Continue reading

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Business half-life.

The speed at which things can happen is halving, and halving again, the wider implications of Moore’s Law at work. In such an environment, where is the value in static annual planning cycles, bi-annual sales meetings, 3 and 5 year … Continue reading

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Pitching an idea

The most powerful way to get someone to agree with your idea is to ask them the leading question, and have them tell you. Ronald Regan used this technique a lot. He did not tell the American people “your economic … Continue reading

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Lest we forget

Today is ANZAC day, 2013, a day Australia stops, and remembers. We remember  those who fell and amongst the detritus of hyperbole that seems to multiply every year, there are tales of courage, endurance and perseverance that should not be … Continue reading

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Cognitive productivity.

At a simple level, cognitive productivity is just using the brainpower at your disposal to deliver the optimum outcome, weather that brainpower be resident between your ears, or between the collective ears of many in a group. However, it is … Continue reading

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The “Twitter Pitch”

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) famously said “I do not have time to write you a short letter, so I have written you a long one”. This statement is a pitch for twitter 100 years before it was conceived, as the … Continue reading

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A Private note to the chairman: or 6 reasons to quit.

    It is always intriguing to get into a debate with one of my director peers about the way forward for an enterprise. Opinions vary, and the “chat” can become animated, as one did a few weeks ago. As … Continue reading

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A measure of brand maturity.

  Ever noticed that people who seem to “really have it all together” are able to poke fun at themselves, take negative feedback as an opportunity to learn and improve, and surprise with their capacity to be absolutely, selflessly, honest? … Continue reading

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Brand ambiguity will be terminal

In a world of homogenisation, being different is both dangerous and necessary. Standing for something of value  is absolutely essential, ambiguity is death.

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C21 Moments of Truth.

Former CEO of Scandanavian Airlines, Jan Carlzon  write a book in the eighties called “Moments of Truth” which reflected the journey of SAS from its commercial deathbed to being the most admired airline in the world. It was a best … Continue reading

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Social square pegs and round holes

Over the weekend just gone, I was a part of a strategy group setting out to build the marketing plan for an occasional client. There were several guest speakers, one an articulate and persuasive purveyor of what I regarded to … Continue reading

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“Like” means nothing, go for “want”.

Like is too easy, no emotional investment has been made, to do anything useful, you need to move to want. As noted in a previous post, social media wombats, those  clicking a “like” button on your site in the hope … Continue reading

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Relationships, not transactions.

“Relationships” is just a word used to describe the web of give and take that binds people together over time. A transaction can take place without a relationship of any sort. However, a series of transactions that require choices to … Continue reading

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Velocity of ideas

In the economy of C21, we are far less interested in physical stuff that we are in intangibles. A measure that will emerge both as one of internal corporate performance, and the performance of markets is the velocity of ideas. … Continue reading

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To hashtag or not to hashtag

  It seems that there are a lot of hashtags appearing on ads in traditional media, and I wonder at their value. Some conversations are simply not worth having, and so inviting one by using a twitter hashtag is absorbing some … Continue reading

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To Brand, to Brand.

Interesting verb, “to brand”. On one hand, it can mean sticking a mark on something you own to indelibly claim ownership. On the other, it implies a process of building a relationship with something that provides you with some sort … Continue reading

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To communicate, be simple.

When you have something to communicate, do it simply, decisively, without any ambiguity or extra frills, and look the receiver of the communication in the eyes. This holds for personal communication, advertising, and now for the myriad of social communication … Continue reading

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Maths +Assumptions = Algorithm

I have been intrigued by the differances in material delivered to my inbox, when compared to a colleagues inbox, using the same search terms.   Our lives are run by algorithms, every time we log on, our history, and assumptions based … Continue reading

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Data and emotion

Are these two separate ideas, or just opposite ends of the same stick? In a world increasingly driven by data, and as someone who has been known to rant about the necessity of measuring marketing efforts in order to build … Continue reading

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