First Movers Don't Always Stay Out Front

When I was in graduate school, I developed some case studies for Professor Ram Charan. One of them was on the AMPEX company. You may not have heard of AMPEX because it has literally disappeared from the business scene, but back then it was THE dominant player in recording tape and tape players. Dominant. Profitable. And, now, out of sight.

What happened? Sony and others took AMPEX products and made them better. So, while AMPEX was the first mover and early innovator of tape technology it didn't hold on to its advantage. That's true in many other cases. Atari pretty much invented video games, but Nintendo and Sony kept improving them. Xerox invented the mouse, but Steve Jobs saw its potential.

The lesson is that innovation is critical, but to remain successful you have to stay hungry. You have to compete with yourself. You need the restless spirit that asks "how can this be better?" over and over again.

As the saying goes ... today's laurels are tomorrow's compost.

Death by PowerPoint

I don't know why so many PowerPoint presentations are sooooooo painful. PowerPoint itself is a wonderful tool. It can allow a presenter to use graphics to illustrate content - and research shows that generally multi-media is better than single a medium in communicating. But despite the capabilities of the PowerPoint tool, so many presenters just put their text on the slides. Even worse, they put lots and lots and lots of text on the slides. The result is a numbing exercise in visual overload which impedes, rather than enhances, communication. I come from an advertising background and I've learned over and over again that one can only communicate a few points in a communication message. My worst nightmare has been clients who want to shoehorn twenty points into a thirty second commercial. Yet, presenters think nothing of this. Slides are free ... space is virtually unlimited ... so more must be better. The casualty is clear communication. For a comic look at PowerPoint gone horribly wrong, click here Academics and government folks seem to be the worst offenders when it comes to creating dreadful presentations. I guess they feel that they have to prove their worth by piling things higher and deeper. The good news is that there are good books available on creating effective presentations. I recommend them all the time. The option, unfortunately, is death by PowerPoint. And as someone once pointed out - they don't call them bullets for nothing.

Wasted Investment in Branding

Recently, I needed a service call in my home to fix a problem. I don't want to identify the company, but it is a large enterprise which invests lots of money in its brand. The service person was a very nice, chatty guy. As we talked, he proceeded to tell me all about the problems in his company ... how it was losing its local roots ... how disillusioned employees were ... etc., etc. So, all the money that the company had invested in advertising, public relations and community events that had influenced my positive image of their brand ... went right out the window. That's why internal marketing and good employee relations are such a critical component of branding.

Pay What You Want ...

This afternoon I'm going to do some on-air pitching for Hawaii Public Radio. They have an interesting business model. They provide the service at no charge and then ask people to make a voluntary payment. It's interesting and unusual, but it turns out that this model is not unique. Recently a restaurant implemented a "pay what you want" scheme. They were confident enough in their product quality that they were willing to try this. While they had some "cheap charlies" and deadbeats, in general they found that people were paying expected menu prices ... or, surprisingly, some were paying a premium. Which goes to show that when you provide real value, customers are generally willing to pay for it.

On the other hand, companies that provide lousy value get complaints about prices. Once again, airlines are a good example of a business built on cutting corners and squeezing value.

Circumstances Have Prompted Me to Blog Again

I've been silent for some time ... feeling that no matter what, things are taking their own course. What can one do? But then came ... the Arab spring ... occupy Wall Street ... and other evidence that people can get stirred up and make change. And then there's ... the craziness of the political scene and the inability of people to work together. So, maybe it's time to blog again.

I'll start with a recurring theme: the true foundation of prosperity is creating honest value. Not derivatives. No get-rich-quick schemes. No flim flam.

Good marketers and good managers have always understood this. Quality and value stand the test of time. Everything else will eventually come crashing down.

I'm including some wisdom from Calvin and Hobbs.

A "Talk Story" Session on Strategic Planning ...

Hawaii Public Radio ... Business of the Arts, September 5, 2010.

Customer Service

On vacation recently, we were taking a train from Brussels to Paris. The train was delayed for about 40 minutes. While en route, staff came through the train asking passengers if they would like a taxi reserved for them upon arrival ... and handing out forms to request a 20% discount on the price of the ticket.

I wonder why the SNCF - the French train service - can do this ... and airlines can't. Or won't.