Spheres of Influence

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday! As we get closer to the end of the year and looking back on what was important in 2007, it's certainly the relationships and interactions that are at the top of the list. Especially the ones where we made a difference to someone.

Spheres of influence are being highlighted by the growth in the number and varieties of online social networking mediums. The emphasis for most of these is mainly on breadth rather than depth - lots of superficiality: a mile wide and an inch deep.

Other influence is laser-focused. Take Tony Dungy's story. After his son committed suicide he said he was not going to continue with his career. A friend asked him if, knowing where his son was when he was living and where he is now, he would want to bring him back. After considering this awhile, he decided he really wouldn't do that and was able to return to football and ultimately bring the Colts to their Super Bowl win last year. I would trade that kind of positive influence in someone's life for a record-breaking Facebook network any day.

Most of the time it's more a matter of being ready for the opportunity than seeking it out. The genuineness and spontaneity are hard to fake. Here's a clip of a 13-year old whose influence would be tough to match. I hope we all see our opportunities for real influence in the new year.

Christmas Booklist

Here's a list of books that are on my Christmas wishlist - send me your own recommendations.

Anti-Christmas Entertainment

The battle lines of Merry Christmas vs. Happy Snow Season are being drawn up earlier each year. "The Golden Compass" rolls out with its story for children "about killing God" according to author Philip Pullman in a neo-Nietzsche quip.

But on the other hand there's Mitt Romney saying there's room for religion still/again in politics. And Oxford philosophy professor and distinguished atheist Antony Flew has just come out with his long move toward faith with the long title, "There is a God - How The World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind."

Abel's lamb was for a man. The passover lamb was for a family. The lamb on the temple altar was for a nation. The Lamb on the cross was for all of us. The world is flat - as of 2000 years ago.

- link to 24-hour Christmas music on your PC

Pleasure to burn...

Do people ever ask you what you think of television? Not of "24" or MTV or The Antiques Road Show, but television itself. Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man,...) said this:

The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.

His assessment of the internet is a bit more optimistic: "Well, I hope it's an experiment that works." Here's the whole clip: Bradbury on the internet

The i.c. stars Technology "Boot Camp"

Here's a recent article from the Tribune about a technology training program in Chicago I'm proud to be a part of called i.c. stars.

Thankful

Are you thankful today? Of course you are. "If you've got three or more TV's in your house, you're richer than 95.4% of the world; if you've got two refrigerators, you're richer than... etc."

Are you humble today? (Be careful - as soon as you take any pride in it, you're not humble anymore!) I think these two are hard to separate. It's hard to be proud and thankful.

It seems to me there are three areas where we are most often thankful. There are probably more but to keep it simple let's say we're thankful for things, people and ideas.

We have a lot of great stuff that improves the quality of our daily lives, no question about it. And of course a lot of that is recent technology that makes us more fortunate than those before us. Beyond that, we know we should be thankful for our relationships. Pop stars are thankful for their fans, authors are thankful for people who buy their books, athletes are thankful for season ticket holders and bloggers are just happy for people's attention.

At another level, we are thankful for the bigger things -- the goodness in the world. Freedom, for example. The freedom to do what we should (and not necessarily what we want to) do is a true cause for thanks. Things like mercy and kindness, hope and forgiveness. To me, these are the things we need to be more thankful for. And only when we are humble enough to realize we don't deserve them can we be truly thankful for them. And that true thankfulness motivates us to give them to others.

In just a few lines I hope this is an encouragement to you. A friend of mine, Josh, expresses it better talking about his own genuine thankfulness in spite of circumstances in his iTunes download here.

Persistence

Are you persistent?

Really persistent when you believe in something?

More persistent than the other guys?

Watch the difference in the responses of these two division 3 college teams as the play gets more and more incredible.

On Giving Thanks

At the risk of recommending something that those who are inclined to appreciate already know about (because it's been out for awhile now)... I was picking some music out for Thanksgiving and came across Chip Davis' Holiday Musik from 1996. If you like this one, there's a #2 album also, but this one is the best, imho. In an era of specific, splintered, niche collections on your iPod, this is one everyone should have. Pop it in your playlist and see if it helps you to think of things you're thankful for.

And to start things off, find someone who is a veteran today and thank them for their part in our continuing freedoms in the most free nation on this earth. Lots of great people, our veterans. People who know how much something costs always appreciate it more.

Technology in Vancouver

I visited Vancouver, British Columbia for the first time last week at a conference -- what a beautiful city! Just over the border, things are familiar enough but have a European air about them. You know you're not in Iowa (no offense, I love Iowa). BC and Canada in general seem to have a larger share of long-haired men, demure women, cigarette smokers and panhandlers. Vancouver is bustling with construction projects everywhere.

And payphones. Hard to figure out why, unless they are subsidized by the government. There seems to be a Telus payphone every couple blocks while in the states the only one I can remember seeing recently is the one in the basement of the library.

Here are some photos and I recommend it as a place to visit - be sure to see Stanley Park and Granville Island, formerly an industrial park now converted to a quaint shopping area. The photo with the two gentlemen is of Doug Mueller, the father of the top-rated Remedy Service Desk and our presenter Marc Thames, who spoke to a packed out Friday morning session on the difference between asset and configuration management.

MTV Nation

Wow - a friend of mine sent me this poem recently. I don't read enough poetry, but I found this incredibly powerful. It's the long version of "no rest for the weary/wicked." One cursory note that occurs to me as I read it is how shallow and banal television has become by contrast - perpetual desperation for least-common-denominator appeal.

Unless you're in the mindset of watching "my show" at a certain time of day, TV can only become more obsolete. Some of the last hurrahs are in tivo-ing out commercials, growing screen size and quality -- 90" plasma, HD, etc., but as the web becomes more compatible with this technology and video takes an increasing foothold, more televisions will be out on the sidewalk each week.

Even with MTV...

Warning: It's not a single-read. At least it wasn't for me.

THE PULLEY.

WHEN God at first made man,
Having a glasse of blessings standing by ;
Let us (said he) poure on him all we can :
Let the worlds riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way ;
Then beautie flow’d, then wisdome, honour, pleasure :
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone, of all his treasure,
Rest in the bottome lay.

For if I should (said he)
Bestow this jewell also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts in stead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature :
So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlesnesse :
Let him be rich and wearie, that at least,
If goodnesse leade him not, yet wearinesse
May tosse him to my breast.

George Herbert

Intentional Obfuscation

Marketing should be clear, focused, unobfuscated... Why would you want to confuse your audience about what you are selling?

When you want to sell on impulse and not confuse with the details.

There's a particularly ambiguous commercial that comes up and I've tried to pick out any clue of what it is about before the final seconds -- party supplies? dance lessons? a nightclub? No, it's the Illinois Lottery.

It makes me think they don't really want you to think about what it is they're selling, i.e. casinos double the rate of gambling addiction within 50 miles. For every dollar of gambling revenue the state takes in, there are 3 dollars in social costs. The top state for suicide, divorce, gambling addiction and men killing women is Nevada. (Those aren't in the commercial - btw.)

But how else can we pay to educate our children and grandchildren? It sure does look like a great party for the first 25 seconds.

A Moment of Silence

One quiet minute. Controversial? You bet.

As of today Chicago schools are mandating a moment of silence at the beginning of the school day. As in "stop talking." By a vote of 74-37, the house joined the senate in an override of the governor's veto(!) Does it seem at all ironic that this is a point of contention in government-run pedagogy?

The problem? You guessed it -- those kids might be tempted to do some praying or other contemplative activity on government time.

I'm not going to talk about "back when I was in school" because of course before the internet the world was a different place, but suffice it to say my chums and I wouldn't have thought a requirement to be quiet would ever be a shocker. The plan's opponents focus on the testy move from "you can" to "you will."

Our media culture makes a business of bandying about the offensiveness of exactly how casual we can be in speaking to both the vulgar and the divine. But the offensiveness of not speaking for a minute?

Mayor Daley came through in great form: "I believe we always have to move forward." Write it down.

Simplicissimus

I like simplicity. There's undeniable value in being overprecise and overconcise, especially in communicating something complex. Not because the people you're talking to are simple or can’t understand complex thoughts, but because there’s a true beauty in being able to communicate succinctly and well in efficient terms.

In English, the word “simple” doesn’t really lend itself to any convenient philological breakdown. In German on the other hand (where a refrigerator is a cool-cabinet and a glove is a hand-shoe), the word simple – einfach – means one thing, one subject, one stuff something is made of. When you want to keep something simple, keep it uncluttered. Find your main idea and stick to it.

When you see the single swoosh stripe on Jorge Posada’s chest and knee protectors (the only player without any other insignia showing) every time the camera zooms in at a Yankees game, you don’t have to know the Nike corporate vision or the layers in their marketing strategy. It’s just that simple statement of quiet strength and athletic style. The fact that you have so much in so little makes it all the more powerful.

As you're getting together your next presentation and see all that verbiage in your slides, think of Hamlet’s response to Polonius about "the matter that you read." "Words, words, words.” Cut out a few. Make the font readable from the back row. Speak your presentation instead of using it as a prompt. Your audience should want a copy of your notes, not your slides.

If iWoz the CEO...

So if the other Steve (Wozniak) of Apple were the CEO, he says he wouldn't have dropped the price or offered the store credit rebate on the iPhone. Of course, he bought twenty of them that he's eventually planning to give away.

Actually some people are now more upset with the recent change to their AT&T bills to "simplify" them by taking off call detail (at no extra charge)! "Press one to continue in English..."

I think the marketing team at Apple could have done better.

Pour another cup of coffee for the other impending rollout -- Halo 3 hits the shelves at midnight tonight in the US after three years since the last version. Microsoft is expecting a $150 million return on their $25-40 million investment within the first 24 hours. A million copies are pre-ordered at $60. For reference, the iPhone went to 1 million units in two months and nine days. Stay tuned...

Do Technology Jobs Require Creativity?

The shortage of talent in IT is an increasing problem, as interest in hard skills like math, science and technology courses has been waning recently. GenY'ers have a great opportunity to fill the gap and create an alternative to outsourcing our technology demand overseas.

Here's a video clip from a recent CIO conference I attended at the Chicago Cultural Center on the IT talent shortage. The brainstorming session was led by Michael Krauss of the Market Strategy Group at the i.c. stars annual "iOpener" event.

Some of the questions to the audience included the need for creativity in IT, and how technology jobs compare to a job in accounting (accounting is about what happened; IT is about what's going to happen).

Broad Shoulders and Clean Hands

Recruiters: Another reason to choose Chicago for your next job fair -- you're going to be shaking a lot of hands. On a good day you may shake hands with hundreds of people. Don't give it a second thought... as long as you're in the second city, which came in first in a new survey by Harris Interactive on personal hygiene, specifically hand-washing habits.

Timing is Everything

When it comes to marketing yourself, the timing element can't be overestimated. Getting in early and making a unique value proposition are keys to landing the interview. Guy Kawasaki has a great post on applying for a job online and how important it is to respond as quickly as possible. He's also got a new webex coming up next week in his "Art of..." series on The Art of Evangelism.

Help! My iPhone is Depreciating by the Minute

For all Steve Jobs genius in rolling out Apple's newest avatar, yesterday's discount announcement for the iPhone is his second misstep in as many months.

The first was lining the iPhone up with AT&T over Verizon and sparking a craze of hackers making headlines by "unlocking" it to work with other service providers.

Now for pricing strategy... Normally, a big price cut should put some wind in your sales as they begin to lag. But when you do it right on the heels of most of your most loyal customers jumping on your bandwagon, it could have the opposite effect. Dropping the iPhone's price by 30% yesterday looks strangely desperate. iPhoners are going to be dialing Apple off the hook with 30-day return questions.

Does Steve have an inside line on the rumors around the gPhone? If not, he's provoked enough suspicion in the minds of remaining prospective phone buyers around stability of the whole market to make them say, Whoa -- put on the brakes - I was hoping to get something for $600 that would be all-that for years, not weeks!

The Luddites are in high spirits today.

UPDATE: Steve Jobs issues an open letter and $100 credit (on another purchase) to iPhone owners today.

All In A Day's Work

If you marry the one you love, you'll never be tempted.

If you put your trust in God, you'll never doubt your faith.

If you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life.

Well, for some people maybe. For the rest of us there's this matter of discipline. Of doing things and doing them well even when we don't feel like it. Of knowing what's required in our work and then going well beyond it, consistently. And sometimes the discipline not to work.

I didn't work on Labor Day. I was unplugged out in the middle of nowhere. I hope you didn't either. Not because you don't love your job, but because you do. It's not much of a holiday if you do the same kinds of things anyway now is it?

Some people take special satisfaction in getting in an "extra" day, or hour, or e-mail. They get so accustomed to making sacrifices and even compromises, especially about work, that they don't even realize they are. They tell themselves, "I'm not really working..." Particularly when you really do enjoy your work, and you can take it all the way to the bank, it's an easy trap to fall into.

But you know when you have a baseball in one hand and a cell phone in the other. You'll love your job even more if you don't refuse to unplug from time to time, especially on Labor Day. And btw, the one you're throwing the ball with will appreciate it too.

iOpener

This past week finished off on Friday with the "iOpener" event, one of the city's biggest annual technology executive events, hosted by ic stars at the Chicago Cultural Center downtown. Among the topics at the event was the need for creativity in technology, especially its value in the new high-tech workforce.

Peter Drucker said there are only two real functions of a business; marketing and innovation. Innovation is the point where creativity stops being a clever idea and starts showing a return on investment. But creativity is where the initial value lies in a world where access to technology resources is becoming increasingly ubiquitous.

Michael Krauss, President of Market Strategy Group and member of the Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors, moderated a collaborative discussion through the audience at Friday's event to create message points on why 18-25 year olds should choose IT as a career. The results of the discussion will be published in an upcoming paper entitled, "Move the Future," in response to the continuing decline in enrollments for technology-related education and the increasing difficulty in finding people for IT positions.

The tools to make the next facebook or a photobucket or a digg are out there for anyone with a laptop, and the value of creativity to see them in a new way is the new trump card. As an executive at Apple said a couple years ago (pre-iPod), "We want to be the ones who come up with new ideas -- not the ones who snap the pieces together..."

Bill Gates Meets Napoleon

Some people hate Microsoft. Some people hate Bill Gates. Some people hate the movie "Napoleon Dynamite." If you're in one or more of those groups, don't watch this video. You'll hate it.

Otherwise, you might think it's pretty funny... maybe even download it to your iPhone.

Marketing Yourself

A friend asked me to review a resume recently and it struck me how much time is sometimes spent on format for a generic resume vs. content for a custom resume. Format is great -- it's good to show attention to detail and the ability to present well.

But for every job you're really serious about, your resume should be different, not changing any of the core components, but emphasizing the strengths that are appropriate to the position. Depending on your versatility and how far along in your career you are, no two of your resumes should be the same and some could look very different. It takes some work to find out just what the job entails and why you are the best qualified candidate -- which is what both sides want to know, right?

An e-mail blast of the same resume to ten or twenty or fifty companies is likely to get a response that is just as generic (if not moreso).

The End of Airline E-mail Blackout

An update on in-flight broadband -- American Airlines just announced they will team up with service provider Aircell to offer the internet on domestic flights early next year, picking up where Boeing left off, using cell towers rather than satellites. Blessing or curse, you'll be able to keep up on e-mail and access the web, rather than just updating spreadsheets and powerpoints.

100 Degrees of Confidence In The Shade

We all like type A's on our side. Someone who carries our own opinions with a little extra swagger. Someone who can propose a strategy, or suggest a solution or give advice with blazing bravado.

Especially once they develop a loyal following.

And are paid well to do it.

Would you prefer a champion like Wharton professor Scott Armstrong who's willing to put up, say $20,000 to demonstrate his certainty about global warming -- or one who declines the challenge -- especially if that amounts to about 10-15 minutes of his normal speaking fees?

Bottom line: pick good champions.

ASiQ Inflight - Just in Time for the iPhone

If you've been wondering what the holdup is in getting inflight internet access, here's an update in anticipation of ASiQ's low-cost solution within the next couple months.
Just in time for you to try it out on your new iPhone, depending on where you stand in Rogers' diffusion of innovations -- and your current contract with Verizon (whose service wins hands-down over AT&T but where Steve Jobs couldn't agree on the terms of the deal).

Two Ways Of Looking At It

I remember when Katherine Hepburn died a couple years ago, the quote she left the world with was that she was "looking forward to oblivion." For anyone with this kind of aspiration, it's got to affect the way you live as well as the way you die.

Ruth Graham died earlier this month after a life of some celebrity and personal accomplishment as well. She was described as a spiritual giant by her best friend and husband of almost 64 years, Billy.

Like Kate, Ruth also wrote of her passing: "And when I die, I hope my soul ascends slowly, so that I may watch the earth receding out of sight, its vastness growing smaller as I rise, savoring its recession with delight."

I'm sure it did, so that she could. What a great way of looking at it.

The British Talent Invasion - This Time In Opera

On the few occasions when I've watched these shows, I've been disappointed with the waste of time. This is a remarkable piece from "Britain's Got Talent" (a stateside version of American Idol) about real talent apart from showmanship and pop-culture sellability.



Part of the win is obviously in the surprise element from Paul, the cell phone salesman from South Wales. Something to keep in mind when you're making your marketing pitch (and we're all marketing something...).

Tearing Down Walls - Twenty Years Later

It was twenty years ago today - June 12, 1987, that Ronald Reagan made the speech that became the tipping point for the direction of the western world -- JFK's "world of freedom" -- in the end of the twentieth century.

It was my privilege to stand there in Berlin that day and hear President Reagan, at that time my Commander-In-Chief, make his stunning delivery in front of the quadriga of the Brandenburg Gate.


He didn't have to say it. It was a great speech without it and in fact, his advisors all told him to leave it out. Twenty years later I can still tell you firsthand the cold war was very real.

But making the challenge based on his conviction that it was the right thing to do changed the world. "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Freedom has a cost and we stand on the shoulders of great men.

The Business End of Technology

Here's an article I contributed to recently by John Hazard of eWeek on business service management and the best practice meme ITIL. -- Notable prediction by Forrester for 23% growth in the BSM market this year!

Spinning the Big Donor

Reality TV is a little different in the Netherlands. While our shows have become more bizarre and more-luck-than-talent based, the "Big Donor Show" can win savvy contestants a kidney through persuasive appeals to its donor.

Even the Dutch aren't entirely happy with it, admitting it is "controversial." The wishes of the organ's donor override the order on the current four-year waiting list while the donor is alive. But the education minister says his hands are tied as freedom of speech keeps him from "interfering in the content of programs." ...Every education minister's conundrum.

In Memoriam

The click-rates are high on articles about the rising number of casualties lost in Iraq or a mother camped on the lawn outside the president's house because her son was killed.

When you think of the government in the 21st century, you may think of the postal system, government schools or social security. The framers of the constitution had a primary emphasis on one purpose and it wasn't the redistribution of wealth. The central government provides for the common defense.

They knew there was a cost to freedom. And there still is. Happy Memorial Day, particularly to you veterans. Eyes right.

A Big Little Book from Seth Godin

Do you remember Big Little books when you were a kid? I must have had twenty or thirty of them (Gentle Ben, Johnny Quest,...) and dog-eared the pages on every one. There's something handy about a pocket-sized version of a good book.

Seth Godin's new book, The Dip is "a little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick)," although it would require a hip-hop size pocket in your britches.

The house was packed this morning for Seth's Chicago installment of the book tour at Maggiano's. The point of Seth's presentation, although he says it's not meant to be motivational, is to encourage you that the "dips" you find yourself in from time to time may be cul-de-sacs where you need to recognize a lack of potential, but more often are setbacks that real visionary success doesn't often come without.

For example, Seth predicts the Zune's failure for not doing what something with real vision, something that's worth the investment of sticking through the dips, does - being the best in the world. It's objective is to be an iPod challenger, but not to be the best. Microsoft is destined for a cul-de-sac on this one, even with the new Halo-3 version.

So pick something you can be the best in the world at and stick to it and work through the dips. Good advice from someone who's the best in the world at writing powerful big-little books on marketing!

Wii Would Like To Be The Next iPod

The Wii is an innovative twist on videogaming -- no question about it. I had a chance to try it out recently with some friends and it is immediately obvious that in the words of another marketing pitch, "this changes everything." The next thing begging to be built into the package is foot controllers, which will make things even more interesting as the most popular video game of all time is FIFA Soccer.

But as great a product as the Wii is (too great in fact; Nintendo is now doing their best to "fix this abnormal lack of stock") their punchy marketing story certainly played a big part in its success. This is a great ad. Even after seeing it a few times, it's still fun to watch. It's got different levels of humor -- the smartcar, the stereotyped characters, the men on mission, and a bringing-the-world-together message. It's all about you. No wonder.

Are You A Real Ketchup Fan?

If you're a real ketchup fanatic -- here's an opportunity for you to put your marketing skills and your video camera to work a la Nick Dimondi and his $12 "Crash The SuperBowl" Doritos commercial. The catch? You've got to be a diehard Heinz ketchup fan (or possibly a great lawyer).

This time around, the "Top This" challenge is worth $57,000 (get it?) to the winning thirty-second video entry, which can be submitted on YouTube's www.topthistv.com web site. What a great opportunity for you creative marketers to get some breakthrough exposure. I'm predicting more of these yet to come.

The Amazing World of Jeff Han

Some of you may have seen Jefferson Han's video from last year's TED conference with his amazing work in transforming the way we use computers -- specifically using an intuitive touch interface. It's reminiscent of the comment in one of the early Star Trek movies, "Ah, a keyboard -- how quaint."

If you think differently about the way you organize your photos with Google's Picasa, and you thought you saw a glimpse of the future of computing in "Minority Report," take a look at this new video of Jeff's "multi-touch" manipulation of ideas around a screen at this year's conference. The i-phone touchscreen was interesting, but collaboration by throwing things back and forth on a giant computer wallboard changes things to a new order of magnitude.

How to make your product popular? Make it free (or dirt cheap).

Microsoft has just announced a plan to bump its user base up to about a third of the earth's population in the next eight years by offering its suite of office, academic and e-mail software at $3.00 a copy in developing countries, where the current versions are most often pirated.

The plan goes into effect later this year. Possible catch: will these third-world users have to apply for a MS credit card to purchase online?

How Does Offshoring Affect You?

Here's a striking discussion by Princeton economist Alan Blinder on the nature of offshoring and what it means for the flat world. Blinder is the author of "The Quiet Revolution." He compares programming and other currently "offshorable" jobs to farming in the late 18th century --

"Let me give you a large-scale analogy: suppose you were privileged in the year 1802 to walk into President Jefferson's office and say, "You know what, President Jefferson? Right now, 83 percent of Americans earn their living on farms. In 150 years, that'll be about 3 percent." You know, Jefferson might have asked you, "Well, what will the other 80 percent do?" And of course, you wouldn't have known, and nobody would have known. But they found better things to do than working on farms. And so in the end, I think we're gonna have huge gains from this process. What I'm worried about is getting from here to there..."

Next month's i.c. stars CIO event "Capitalize on Illinois" in Chicago focuses on offshoring and I'll include a summary of that discussion here.

Hi-Tech Easter

In our hyperindividualized culture, technology continues to push us further down the path - personal videos, customized controls, hundreds of channels, niches of people with your specific interests, good or bad. On the other end of the spectrum from the ubiquitous white earplugs dangling from a head bowed under a hooded sweatshirt was this spectre of 12,000 people standing simaltaneously to acknowledge the opening strains of the Hallelujah Chorus yesterday morning at the Sears Centre. All the more stunning to think of higher truth in its universality and ability to meet all our needs at once. What a great way to start the week.

Cursor Security

I haven't had this happen recently but evidently if you're on a web site that changes your cursor to an hourglass or other animated figure, you should be thinking security. The good people at Microsoft weren't, until about December. Now they've thought about it enough to put out an emergency patch, including one for the newly released Vista, to keep hackers from being able to install malware through the breach. If your computer downloads updates automatically, you got the patch this week. If not, you're still vulnerable to this risk and should do a manual download from the Microsoft site.

The Brave New World of Multitasking

How well do you delegate priorities to your 100 billion neurons? Here's a great article from the weekend in the New York Times on multitasking. One interesting thing is the challenge to our perception that the millennials and younger people are growing up accustomed to their attentions being split between all the competing, usually technology-oriented tasks. This Vanderbilt University study suggests that interruptions are the equalizer, that is, answering the cell phone tends to bring the younger group's slight edge in speed and accuracy down to the level of the rest of us.

As Neil Postman points out in his classic Technopoly, "...the changes wrought by technology are subtle if not downright mysterious, one might say even wildly unpredictable."

Who Is Steven Furtick?

Albert Einstein said the thing he wondered most was, "Is the universe friendly?"

Lately people are wondering why Britney shaved her head, why Brad Delp committed suicide with a note on his shirt about being a "lonely soul," who Anna Nicole Smith's child's father is, and why so many successful people are in rehab.

According to today's blog engine list on Technorati, people are wondering, "Who is Steven Furtick and why is he beating out typical #1 topics like Twitter at the top of the Technorati list? You may be surprised to learn he's the pastor of a church called Elevation in North Carolina who reads Seth Godin's marketing blog among others. Steven's gotten "addicted" to Technorati in the last couple weeks and now that he's at the top, you guessed it, he's in rehab (from Technorati that is).

And then some people, like Paris Hilton (#7 on the list), aren't wondering anything.

Congratulations and best wishes for a happy Easter Steven!

Orwellian Politics - Hillary in 1984

If you look back at my post of February 14, you'll see I anticipated a youtube video featuring Hillary Clinton. And just a little over a month later, courtesy of "parkridge47" here it is. OK, it's not exactly what I thought it would be, but the influence of video on the hyperindividualized culture is the next big thing in marketing (and political campaigns). There are already over 240,000 hits (update-make that 1 million) to the site. Careful, once you see this mash-up of the classic Apple 1984 commercial you may not be able to scrape it off your consciousness. You think I'm kidding...

Googling The Future

The headlines around firefighting over rights to copyrighted material in an online society are shifting from iTunes to YouTube with Viacom's billion-dollar suit with Google. Here's a recent video interview about the "master plan" for Google's future with Google's VP of Search Product and User Experience Marissa Mayer (German site, but the interview is in English).

Another Google Release

Google Desktop 5 debuts today... another step in the asymptotic pursuit of perfection.

ITIL In the USA

What a great presentation by Malcolm Fry yesterday at the Westin in Chicago -- put together the affable nature of Gromit's companion Wallace with the spontaneous contemplative vision of Yoda, and throw in a bit of John Cleese for good measure and there's Malcolm Fry.

He claims Jimmy Buffett "stole his life" (see photo), but he seems to have a pretty good life traveling around the world talking about configuration management databases and the best-practice guide called ITIL. Not a bad gig for a poor British kid who hails from a family of longshoremen and Romany gypsies.

Talking with Malcolm earlier this week, I was struck by how well-traveled and well-read he is and his ability to put his own not-entirely-occidental perspective on things. Outside the speaking tour he's on perpetually, his latest (anniversary) trip with his wife was to the jungle temples of Angkor Wot at Siem Reap in Cambodia, but you name anyplace in the world and he's likely to be able -- and glad to -- talk with you about it.

Malcolm is also quick to expand your list of reading requirements -- his latest recommendations being "The Devil in the White City" and "Civilization One" (about the "megalithic yard,") and anything by James Michener. He's also got his own book out recently which is a part of the current tour - Step-by-Step to Building a CMDB, (say-em-day-bay in Britspeak) which follows up a series of booklets he wrote on ITIL and a DVD series with the Help Desk Institute.

If you're in southern Wisconsin or Central California, Malcolm will be in the states for another briefing at the Milwaukee itSMF this week and then at the Hilton in San Francisco for a briefing next Wednesday. Drop me an e-mail if you'd like details.

Parents as Managers

If you're breathing, you've thought about the trade-offs involved in working and raising a family and how we as a society prioritize these two. There's a story in the headlines every day with some connection to this issue, whether it's the tabloids or the Wall Street Journal. Here's an interesting article about parenting, management and the work-life balance from Hannah Clark at Forbes including ten reasons parents make better managers.

The Spirit of Detroit

Do you know who your competition is? The marketing team at GM spends big bucks to say Chevy trucks have better resale value than any other American-made trucks. Consumer Reports hasn't picked up on that angle and neither has the American auto buyer.

What about who your customer is? Chrysler says their $1.4 billion dollar loss and restructuring of 13,000 jobs is a result of a waning market in trucks and SUV's. Toyota announced today they're building a $1.3 billion plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi -- to build SUV's. The first step to solving a problem is honesty.

America's love affair with the automobile still carries a lot of loyalty, but Detroit needs to wake up and realize it's become nostalgic. The global market won't allow it to rest on its laurels and a culture of entitlement. When it comes to the biggest investment most Americans make outside their home, financing the appetites past and present of the UAW is no substitute for competing on quality and innovation.

I've a feeling we're not in Seattle anymore...

Earlier this month McDonald's coffee gets a higher rating... now here's another interesting predicament for Starbucks' CEO Howard Schultz getting too big as the chain passes 13,000 on their way to 40,000 stores.

Tell me again, is big the new small or is small the new big?

Opportunity Out of the Blue

There are two points that bear noting as the Jet Blue story continues to play itself out. One is that even a great unique value proposition can become an Achilles' Heel. The second is that catastrophe often brings out true character in companies just as it does in individuals. You can buck up and figure out where you made your mistake or you can shave your head and get a new tattoo.

There's a saying that perfection is the enemy of the good -- when you have a strength in a certain area you can overfocus and it becomes a weakness. Jet Blue has worked its way up over the last seven years to become the eighth-largest domestic airline by having, among other things, the least number of cancelled flights. In that micro-macro shift we all need from time to time, avoiding cancellations is now a lesser piece of the low-fare customer-service strategy that can keep them on their 25% growth path. The announcement of a loss expected for the first quarter is offset by a minor effect predicted for total earnings this year.

David Neeleman, Jet Blue's CEO, has beat congress to the punch in their drafting of a passengers bill of rights with his Customer Bill of Rights. The bill reaffirms Jet Blue's commitment to "superior service" by spelling out a range of compensation from $25 to $1000 and free travel for delays of various lengths and overbooked flights. Neeleman's youtube video promise on the JB home page creatively spins one of the "challenges that comes along" into an advantage, not in a crazy giveaway but in a measured response of transparent sincerity. His emphasis in the three-minute diatribe is on employee flexibility and accessibility, as well as beefing-up staffing in general. In Neeleman's words, "This will be an aberration..."