Random Thoughts

A work of art is an idea expressed creatively (among many other things). And the creative expression itself represents a different idea, provokes a new thought. The process is art -- that notion is the basis of modern art -- the subject of the painting is not the thing represented... but the thing itself, the materials, the process applied.

Try defining the word, irony. Not easy. So... "A state of affairs, an event or expression that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result." See David Letterman. Complicity between him and his audience, a wink that indicates the following: "I'll say or do something some unsophisticated person might think is funny, something that we the initiated  know is not funny. I'll do it as if it's funny. That will be funny. Stupid pet tricks. There is always an implied "as if." A wink. 

There's another meaning of the word "irony": reaching a desired end through means that should not get you there -- getting to the right place despite taking the wrong path. Here is what's not one single bit ironic: every event named in Alanis Morrisette's song, "Ironic." Raining on a wedding day is not ironic. A black fly in your chardonay is not ironic. Winning the lottery and dying the next day is not ironic. Just bad luck. Ironic would be getting married in San Diego rather than Seattle to avoid rain, then having it rain in San Diego. She must be embarrassed by now... I hope.

Shark Angel

This is my friend Julie Andersen grabbing a Tiger Shark by the tail off the coast of South Africa. Her passion in life is saving sharks from extinction.  That's all she does. Here's a cool video of her and her friends swimming with sharks.

Joyous or solemn statistic?

There are about 6.5 billion earthlings today. Counting today's population, about 107 billion babies have been born. Guess how many people have lived and died in the last 50,000 years? Do the math: 100 billion. Fossil fuel?

Two worlds

Silly notions: there are "left-brained" people and "right-brained" people; and that normal people can be just right-brained or just left-brained for periods of time. To peek into a more sophisticated view of how the left and right hemispheres of our brains work, watch this video of neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor at TED. Listen to her experience after the left hemisphere of her brain is knocked out by a stroke. Listen to how she saw God when her left side went offline. How she coped and and regained full functionality.

Boxes

Is the challenge to think out of the box or to expand the box so it can contain more ideas?

Laws of nature

All explanations and observations are partly true. Then what?

Laws of nature

I wonder what the ratio of intended to unintended consequences is. My bet: 1/10.

Innovation, strategy and design

To see how these three areas are inextricably linked, see Roger Martin, Dean of Business School, University of Toronto and Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Labs.

Project Management

Is there any value at all in project management? I guess the coordination and leveraging of resources. Most of the time, project management is an insidious affair. It becomes a shadow organization, the bizzaro version of authentic functions. It keeps watch over and scolds people doing their jobs. It becomes the judge and jury without much accountability itself. People may spend more time reporting progress than actually moving the ball forward. It is highly demotivational to those being monitored. It can often lose track of what it is "managing" toward -- is it achievement of efficiency objectives or overarching business goals? What does it do to customer service? What is its net value to a company? What are the alternatives, e.g., should project management be done on a local level within each organizational area? To see what Scott Adams (Dilbert) and others say about project management, see here.

Quotation

"I am a deeply superficial person." See other Andy Warhol quotes here.

What a brand really, really is

The coalescence of a product and users around an idea.

What a brand really is

An idea.

Virtual Reality

"Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one" (Albert Einstein). Why do Ramones t-shirts outsell their albums 10-1? Why does a video of two teenage girls covering "Hey" by the Pixies get 23 million hits on YouTube while the Pixies themselves get less than 100,000? Virtual reality? Realistic virtuality?

Thinking out loud

Read Dan Roam's book, "The Back of the Napkin." Power of sketching.

Togetherness

Great article in Business Week by Bruce Nussbaum. A passage: "Apple is innovating on a wider and deeper scale these days. It is using sociology rather than technology to propel its sales. By that I mean the iPhone, Macs and stores are all at the heart of a consumer culture that defines itself in terms of connection and sharing. Apple is providing the tools, the methods and even the cool spaces (stores of all things!) to enable and empower this sharing culture. It is identifying with its customers who identify with it. Both Apple and its customers are creating a singular, distinctive identity together."

The check is in the mail

Don't believe for a second the advice, "balance work and life."

Descartes' Error

I think therefore I am. Nope. I am, therefore I think. Read Antonio Damasio's book, "DesCartes Error, Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain."

Marketing

Let's say marketing is the process of 1) defining and sizing an opportunity in the market, 2) developing a compelling solution and customer experience at a competitive price, 3) making a promise to the market, 4) enticing the right people to know about, buy and advocate the offering, 5) making sure the produces a satisfactory return on investment. Read anything by Peter Drucker. Why do so many managers and so many lay people think marketing equals advertising and promotion? Tricking people into buying? Spinning a yarn? Putting a gloss on things? Thoughts? To read about an outbreak of viral marketing influenza, read here.

Another word that has lost its meaning: "brand"

Never let someone use the words "brand" or "branding" without demanding what they mean by them. By "brand" they may mean a name, a logo or a package. Or a promise, a consistent collection of characteristics, or a corporate asset. Or a reputation. By "branding" they may mean slapping the name up all over the place or turning a commodity into a branded product or service. There are tens of meanings for these two slippery words. A discussion about brands can range from the sublime to the ridiculous, from decisions about how many should be in play in a given company to Pantone colors. Interested parties range from the CEO to the facilities people who put signs up. You never know who might be in a "brand" meeting. You can be pretty sure that whoever is in the meeting won't have much idea about what the other folks are talking about. But they will pretend to. Executives and brand agencies can get all lathered up over the subject of brand, so be advised to stifle your laughs when you hear phrases like, "We want to be the premier brand in our industry," or "We're going to compete on the basis of our brand." For a new way to look at brands, read Rob Walker's "Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are" (due out June 3, 2008).

The thing about "strategists"

Strategy is basically defining where you want to go and how to get there. Just as every enterprise now has "clients" rather than customers (hair salons, restaurants, personal trainers, retail stores, etc.), they also have "strategists." Half the people in any given business meeting can be strategists. I'm never sure what a person who introduces herself as a strategist does for a living. A strategist is usually the person given license by his associates to pontificate on the subject at hand. The guy given the title, "Smartest Guy In The Room." There are now advertising strategists, web strategists, HR strategists, product strategists, customer experience strategists, etc. -- one for every function. From their rarefied perches, they feel comfortable looking down their noses at mere tacticians and implementers.  Of course, strategies are tactics relative to the organizing principle above it, so every tactic is a strategy and every strategy is a tactic -- except the ultimate one. Most strategists would have you believe that their strategy is the strategy that reigns over all others -- kind of the Saul Steinberg view of the world. Personally, I don't think most strategists could get out of a room without hurting themselves, but I might be wrong. "More often than not, strategy is what you change every time something goes wrong... it is what breaks when resolve fails and when you're afraid of risk" (Bill Buxton).

Observation

Hindsight is not 20/20. It may be just as bad as foresight.

Quicker Picker Upper

Ridiculous marketing idea #3: account managers

Worst job ever conjured (except VP of U.S.). No particular talents needed except an ability to absorb body blows from the client and weather the derision of the creative geniuses inside the agency. May be able to take and distribute lots of notes nobody reads; may be able to coordinate the schedules of prima donnas from both sides. Constitutionally unable to give honest, informed advice. Pink ghetto. Right or wrong? Believe it or not, there is a Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA). They have seminars and stuff. Check it out here.

Ridiculous marketing idea #2: "brand identity"

Here's all you need to know about "branding" -- find a memorable name nobody else has, render it in a unique style, slap it on as many pieces of media as you can. All other principles will make a 1% difference (if that). Graphic "standards" are not needed, certainly not worth the costs of implementing them -- in dollars and demotivation. Variety is the spice of life. Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. A shared approach to logos and graphics does not create a "unified culture." It is not noticed by anybody outside the company except design groupies. A question I like to ask is, "Would you be satisfied with just being #1 or #2 in your market or do you also need to conform to a graphic homogenization scheme for the sake of corporate neatness"? Another thing. Try to spend time with a naming firm while keeping a straight face. Check this out for some funny name stories. Brand identity firms are charlatans. No?

Ridiculous marketing idea #1: personas.

Here's the idea -- invent characters and use them to inspire design of stuff for real people. Names, hairdos, family pictures, pets, favorite foods for virtual muses. A self-referential invention to inspire invention. Patty, Kim and Oliver. With bios and financial lives. Need I say more. Read a dramatically different view by Kim Goodwin of Cooper (the design firm that "invented" personas).