Advertising is about motivating the consumer (you) to get up from your couch & do stuff...

Can divorce sell cars? Ford's bold ad will tell - from the Chicago Tribune

Fancy stuff from FC

Business at Its Best
Fast 50
http://www.fastcompany.com/partners/microsoft/designatitsbest.html

Burger King: Using Social Currency

David Aaker talks about - Relevance, Energy, Clarity, Differentiation, Leverage as principles to build a strong portfolio of brands.

This article from ANA is as close as it gets to that within the BK portfolio. - Burger King: Using Social Currency

How to Launch a Career With Your Blog

From FC - Launching your career with your very own blog!

listen to your customers, let them tell you what they want

It is not very typical one comes across two articles that feed off of each other on the same day...

ANA - Consumer Insights - What a Concept
FCNow - gui gouwu zhongxin(Ghost Mall)

Do you "Google?"

Google's take on the brand - NOUN vs. VERB?

Technorati Profile

Talk substituting for action

Very interesting post on FCNow: Leading Ideas: Don't Let Talk Parade as Action

The Top 10 Reasons New Products Fail

Robert Schulman's - Checklist on the Top 10 Reasons New Products Fail.

from the ANA blog.

Unprecedented

460^o

The coefficient of restitution

All those people who ever played golf or studied advanced physics or engineering have definitely heard the term coefficient of restitution. It is a measure of a body’s ability absorb energy… boy, am I getting technical or what? Anyway the thought crossed my mind when I came across an article on work life balance and executive health. There is more to the beating most executives take above and beyond the odd work hours. It is the constant war games, small failures and much the same way small successes.

I wonder if we should have a measure of an individual’s coefficient of restitution included in one of those employment application forms. Wouldn’t it be amazing if and when the board of directors review a candidate for the position of a CEO they ask him/her how much beating can u take?

Unlike most non living things (that are assumed rigid and isotropic) I believe we humans metamorphosize, in our ability to take a beating. Call it thickening of the skin or shamelessness, net-net we do get more resilient and our coefficient of restitution goes up.

The more I think the more I agree we need a measure to evaluate our ability to rebound from setbacks.

Frying talent

A couple years ago I came across a case study in one of the monthly issues of the Harvard Business Review that was very interesting. A super star that makes the team feel like dirt and what was worse was the individual never acknowledges it and never realizes the long term affects of the behavior demonstrated. The individual is so good that the loss could have a significant effect on the organization.

Firing anyone is not an easy task let alone firing talent. I have quoted the proverb “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush”, but what if the bird in hand is not pretty? There is so much to it… the relationship, the person being affected, the effect on rest of the organization and lastly by no means the least, the effect on company image. Firing is a necessary evil to keep things in check and maintain a balance.

Four mediocre people are worse than one talented individual but one high maintenance individual is not worth the effort. I would say… coach’em, mentor’em and if nothing works fry’em.

Talent acquisition is a continuous process!

Brand Yourself!

Another real good one from Fast Company - Brand Yourself

"first, you have to build expertise. That's the easy part. The more difficult
aspect is getting people to recognize it."

The Meekest and Mightiest Make the Worst Leaders

Interesting article from Stanford Business Knowledge.

Interesting Blogs from 20/20

The Consumerist: Shoppers Bite Back

My Bad: THE LATEST APOLOGIES: WHO'S SORRY NOW?

Lets get the moms involved...

Herfootball.com

fantasy football...

Numbers to Lose Sleep By

Alarming...

The situation is reflective of the current interest rate combined with our growth hedges.

Read on from Fast Company
Wonder how is it sustainable with the Dow index at record levels? - Beige Book

Stoke the fire, feed the fire or use it as an Incinerator

I did not believe there was a difference between the three. All you really do in either of the scenarios is put stuff in the fire place. It is either the iron or dry logs or just stuff that burns. I put anything and everything from candy wrappers to, wet twigs, dust, dirt, leaves that followed my wet shoes, etc. What’s the big deal I thought? But when I got a big fire place in my house I realized the difference. During my annual cleaning I heard about it from the chimney cleaner. All the soot had layered the chimney.

I thought this is just like people! Treat people the way they deserve they deliver! Treat them like the average person and get mediocrity. It is not rocket science! It is all about how u feed and stoke their passions.

One of the companies I worked for had a very interesting and robust people management system. Every single person started as an average (un-judged) to give the individual room to grow, when it came time to measure and evaluate the individual had plenty of time to prove him or herself. When they proved to be different and better they moved up, when they lost ground they moved off.

It was not unusual to see people who had gone up to slide and yet be rewarded for their potential (the JIT princicple, wait for my next essay) and people who slide to ride the wave again. After all ‘A bird in hand is worth two in the bush’.

Education from Google!!

Teacher's Helper
Infinite thinking

Burn those calories baby

Only from Coke & Nestle - A calorie burning beverage

Fascinating opportunity!

Touching PEOPLES lives and improving PEOPLES life

At this years Annual Masters of Marketing conf - Jim Stengel presented
A New Way of Thinking - People Versus Consumers

Are relationships a replacement to authority?

Organizations are getting more and more complex with crisscrossing reporting lines that look worse than the toy racing car tracks from my childhood. It is not a surprise that the complexity is being balanced by flatter organizations to avoid any communication challenges and ensuing dissemination of information, both up and down the chain of hierarchy.

One must love a certain amount of ambiguity to survive inside the matrix, it can be challenging and stressful but if managed appropriately can create a lot of opportunities and learning from cross interaction. I have always believed it is almost impossible to accomplish anything significant without clarity of role. I have written about it in many of my past essays and decided I needed to revisit the idea. Over time I have built a robust network (my Net work is my Net worth!) and realized there is a lot more to getting things done than authority.

So what is so powerful about the network that matrices lack? Actually nothing! It may just be about the mindset people approach it with. The fundamental difference is authority can be bestowed like a magic pill while relationships take time to build, additionally relationships are tenuous, easy to destroy but tough to build. If one gets the dynamics of the difference relationships could very well be a replacement to authority!

...and there's AG

P&G's Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive: AG Lafley

Bully Marketing

In Pictures - from Forbes

Full Article - Bully Marketing

OBD & Thinking Deficiency Disorder

Just noticed a couple interesting articles from FastCompany - Obsessive Branding Disorder
- Wise up

Interesting blogs I have stumbled upon

The Newsfutures' Blog
The CultureBlog
Rajib Roy's musings

Today's leadership

Listening credibility

Ever been in a meeting where some one speaks before they listen? Can be very annoying! This may not come as a surprise to those who have ever been in consulting and thrived in that environment but listening is rather difficult. It takes a special skill to listen; a typical person will create an opinion long before they have heard the entire argument and more times than not blurt out irrelevant or even logically challenging responses to a discussion.

For those familiar with MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) I wonder if there are MECE answers to questions. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to answer questions without ever hearing them yet not going wrong? I am not talking about invoking the 5th.

We all need to play politics but I guess it takes more than that to be right.

I recommend instituting a measure of “listening credibility”?

Engagement By Engagement

Interesting blog - Engagement By Engagement

A perspective on Consumer Engagement and developments in the advertising industry's Engagement initiative.

Hiring for talent not for skills

As easy as it sounds hiring for skills is as tough as asking some one to looking into a fire and predict the future. It can be tough especially in today’s fast paced environment but also absolutely essential in order to ensure any semblance of continuity. One of the most important things I believe we need today is ADAPTABILITY/AGILITY; call it by any other name and it sounds exactly the same!

The mobility to take knowledge and apply to a different business, in a different region and in many cases a different function. Skills are tactical they are like signposts, they rarely ever move, but it would be tough to get to a destination without a signpost.

Hiring for skills is akin to digging a well when one gets thirsty!

As long as one has talent skills can be developed. Organizations hire consultants to meet a tactical need. That’s the perfect place to look for a specific skill! It is a short term need and once met another one may not arise for a while. Talent on the other side transcends functions and projects it is really AGILE!

One for one

One for all and all for one? I am not sure I believe in it and that true of leadership too! People are different, each unique with different styles. So I guess there really is no such thing as ‘One for all and all for one’ at least in the corporate world.

Years ago when I interviewed for new jobs I wanted to know as much about ‘The Role’ as possible, through friends, through my network, in some cases from the recruiter, so I knew exactly what to say that would impress the interviewer. Just how to say it in order to engage the listener, I did that for years until recently I realized I am not looking for a job or a career. I don’t mean to say I am not in the market but what I really mean is I am looking for a fit! A place that values my idiosyncrasies and I share common values.

It is impossible to survive in a box, let alone one where you cannot breathe freely?

What Ideas Are you Fighting For?

Interesting post on FastNow - What Ideas Are you Fighting For?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The ancestor of action is thought", truly ideas are worth fighting for!

Lead, Follow or Get out of the way… needs revision

A couple years ago I came across the message “Lead, Follow or Get out of the way…” on a school t-Shirt in the Coop. I felt it was a little to arrogant but on second thought it seemed fine given it presented to the reader all the options, be a leader, be a follower, or let others be. And yet I felt it to be a little too harsh.

It is not uncommon these days to run into an exec who one cannot make a decisive choice, then there are those that make choices based on some one else’s options there are those who let others make decisions for them, lastly the ones that won’t question the options or the choices. Churchill said it best, “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it”.

No corporation can ever thrive with weak leadership. I have completed the full circle; yep I accept I am a convert. The way I see it the choice is clear “Lead or Get out of the way!”

Lets add to the confusion!

"If you can't convince them, confuse them." -- Harry Truman

Guess that's what the Marketing research community does best! I guess what we really need is an insight into the payout from knowing more than just knowing more?

Boomer Research Defines Six New Consumer Clusters - From the Marketing Daily.

Hourglass Society

I thought the article was about health consciousness but then realized it was about a transitional society from the young to the old.

You will be judged and valued on the basis of your behavior in relation to
your communities and the environment.

by Karlene Lukovitz, Monday, Oct 2, 2006 5:00 AM ET (Marketing Daily)

I just hope we have not realized this in the last couple weeks and months and that this has been our beacon and guiding principle.

An article worth reading... 'Hourglass Society' Values Community, Ecology

Things I hate the most!

I acknowledge this is obviously not the best way to start a Monday but I felt the need for it.. In any case there’s got to be a balance… the good with the bad, the ying with the yang, a Monday with dark thoughts. So here is a list of the top three things I hate the most.

• Lack of Integrity
• Lethargy/Procrastination/Tardiness
• Lack of Commitment/Focus or Indecision

Our stories & our communication

what's your brand story? - from ANA

It is the triangulation between: Personal connection - Product efficacy - Wider equity alliances.