Are You the Smartest Kid in Summer School?

I've worked for several interesting companies in my life. One company, was a leader in it's industry - not the biggest, but definitely the most profitable. It had been around for over 100 years - a boast few companies can make.

We were victims of our own success - measuring ourselves solely against direct industry competition and feeling pretty good about ourselves.

The world's standards for process performance had long ago raised the bar, but in our industry, the bar was set very low. And we (as well as the stock analysts) only compared our performance within our industry.

The signs were all there... We took ten days to close our books at quarter end. World class performance is a two day close. We were unable to bill a customer for up to two weeks after an order had shipped, because we were busy doing job cost analysis (manually) to be certain we hadn't made any billing omissions. World class performance sends the bill the day the order ships. (Actually Dell gets paid before they even start your order!)

All that didn't matter. We were at the head of the class - just look at our income statement! So we had no sense of urgency when it came to improving our performance. My Dad would have described us as "fat, happy and stupid".

We never saw it coming. Less than 5 months after an unsolicited takeover bid, the company was swallowed up by a bigger competitor. It is no more. One hundred years of history erased. Hundreds of jobs lost.

Venture capitalists don't care that you're successful within your industry. They look for bargains - under performing businesses based on world class metrics, not necessarily your metrics.

As Thomas Friedman describes in his bestseller, "The World is Flat", whether you know it or not, you're competing against everyone, everywhere.

Successful companies, like Toyota, don't benchmark against their competition, they benchmark against perfection. And they seem to be doing pretty well.

If your company benchmarks it's performance solely against direct competitors, you may think yourself the brightest kid in class and never realize that you're in summer school.

Use Creative Writing Class to Blog!

I've only recently begun blogging. I started because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. After all, it's reported that thousands of blogs are started every hour. (I suspect that an equal number die each hour as well.)

I think that many blogs have the same lifespan as fruit flies.

That said, I've learned a lot about my writing style by blogging. I wish I was better at it. And I think it would be an interesting experiment if our high school students used blogging as a tool to hone their writing skills.

After all, the next generation will be communicating in "chunks" - snippets of information typically used in web communications. And I think that as Web 2.0 entrenches itself in our society, effective writing will be an even more valued skill than in past generations.

Here are four things I've learned from my blogging experience, so far.

1. Completely coherent thoughts (in draft mode) somehow become obscured as soon as I hit the "publish" button. I need to re-read everything I write. I probably re-edit 80% of my posts after they've been published.

2. My spell checker only catches about 90% of my spelling errors. I'm on my own for grammatical errors.

3. I use 20 words when 5 will do. Brevity is an art.

4. I'm not as interesting as I think I am!

After learning these lessons, I wince when I think of how many emails I've written and how many PowerPoint presentations I've composed over the years. Had I the opportunity to learn these lessons earlier, I might have saved myself some embarrassment and been a more effective communicator.

So, lobby your schools to introduce a blogging class. Effective writing is a skill that will serve your kids well over time. And a little reflection and introspection doesn't hurt either.

On Being Remarkable

I've been reading recently about how our businesses need to stand out - to so impress, that we become "remarkable" - worthy of mention within our customer (and prospect) community.

It reminds me of a story from my past.

A decade ago, I ran a small B2B Direct Marketing department. Our company primarily sold safety signs, labels and tags (and other OSHA compliance products) by catalog.

Our challenge was this. As every direct marketer will tell you, we mail and mail our catalogs until the mailing campaign becomes unprofitable. You never want to miss a potential sale and so you tend to carpet bomb your customers with the same (or only slightly changed) catalogs over and over again.

If you happened to be a "current customer" you were especially vulnerable to these tactics!

In actual fact, we were training our best customers to ignore our catalogs because we were mailing so frequently.

Now here's the dilemma we faced. In an attempt to better position ourselves within our market, we undertook a huge product line expansion. At stake, was whether our customers would even notice. Had we trained them to ignore us?

Our goal was to get our best customers to notice our new book AND to take the time to glance through all the new products.

Our catalog size had increased by over 150 pages (to a total of 384). Knowing that customers spend no more than 3 seconds glancing at a catalog page, if we wanted them to see all our products, we needed to hold their attention for almost 20 minutes!

We knew that we had to do something "remarkable".

So we sent a "coffee break" to our best customers.

We created a gift package that contained a high end mug with our logo, along with samples of tea, coffee, sugar, powdered creamer and shortbread cookies along with an advanced copy of our new catalog. And to make sure it got noticed, we sent it by FedEx.

Upon opening the gift, our customers uncovered a letter inside the box stated that our catalog contained so many new products that it would take at least 15 minutes to browse - so we felt it only fair that we send along a coffee break as well.

Based upon the subsequent sales and comments received by our customer service department, our strategy of trying to be "remarkable" proved to be a good one. Being remarkable works.

When is the last time your company was "remarkable"?

I don't get BudTV!

In case you missed it (and you probably did), Budweiser launched a very slick internet based "TV Network" called BudTV. Initially it attracted 500,000 "viewers" but its popularity seems to be waning.... fast.

I love innovation and send kudos to anyone who tries something different, but I have to admit that I just don't get it. To me, they haven't addressed the main question, "Why should I care?"

Once you get past the registration process (they seem to be very concerned that you're over 21 before entering), they offer a very slick video experience with short (2-6 minute) "snippets" of "shows" designed for the 21-35 year old crowd.

While it has been decades since I've been in their target demographic, it seems to me that Bud TV has several major challenges.

First, Generation M has way too many choices, that are more accessible than logging into Bud TV. Why go to BudTV for six minute behind the scene of a Bud NASCAR driver, when there's the racing channel? Why tune in to watch BudTV video, when there's YouTube?

Secondly, launching a network means trying to hold my attention with entirely new content. That's an uphill climb.

Clearly Budweiser has spent a ton of money on this website. If it were me and I wanted to attract a large 20 something audience, I'd program the following:

1. Bill Maher's "New Rules" segments with 5 new rules each week or pay to host the "Overtime" segment.
2. Jon Stewart's "best opening monolog of the week" or better yet, 5 minutes of new, exclusive programming from the Daily Show.
3. A BudTV exclusive segment of Stephen Colbert's "The Word" segment.
4. Music video "exclusive previews" from up and coming stars (or established ones, if possible)
5. "Behind the Album" artist interview segments
6. Concert/Movie reviews with Adrianna Costa (CNN Headline News Entertainment reporter)
7. Exclusive access to a "Bud" Woot-off, featuring Bud swag
8. Family Guy, South Park, American Dad clips featuring Bud beer....

...for a start...

By aggregating known content, Bud would have a much easier time attracting 20 somethings AND keeping them coming back...

Secondly, Budweiser needs to find a way to create a two way dialog with their customers. BudTV is an "old" one way conversation, just delivered over a different medium. Find a way to engage the audience ("live" ask Jon Stewart segment, post your Bud Video, post pictures and a story from the last NASCAR race you attended, etc, etc..)

But the bigger question is:
Assuming that all my ideas worked, now that you have the 20 somethings engaged, how are you going to sell them Budweiser beer? Coupons in boxes of beer to be "redeemed" on the website?

I haven't figured that out yet.

Best Presentation Style Ever?

For those of you who have sufferred through Death by Powerpoint presentation, here's a video of an interesting style you may want to copy http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/

Thanks to my buddy Gene Wright, on who's blog this link originally appeared.

Georgia D.O.T. Not So Peachy

In yet another story of government gone terribly wrong, it was reported yesterday, that Georgia's DOT forces hybrid car owners to take emissions tests despite the fact that their testing centers aren't equipped to properly test hybrids.

Perfect.

Because the law is poorly written (probably before hybrids), DOT officials must test every car. When a Georgia resident pulls up in his or her new Prius, the local DOT actually performs what they call an "aborted test", since a) they must test and b) they can't test because the Prius doesn't idle long enough using it's gas engine before switching to electric, hence no emissions! They then follow-up the aborted test with a manually issued "waiver".

If the goal of the emissions testing program is cleaner air, they've gone horribly wrong. I fear that the tests remain mandatory because the original goal of the program has long since been obscured by the revenue the program generates ($25 per car).

Here's a wild idea; Why not give hybrid owners a break and exempt them from the testing and then raise the fees for those folks who continue to drive gasoline powered vehicles? Perhaps you could change a practice that is the source of ridicule. and turn it into a program that would help "drive" the right behaviour (pun intended) AND generate a few more bucks for your treasury.

Makes one wonder how many other government processes are broken. I shudder to think..

A Teaching Moment - What I've learned

After seeing "Meet the Press" today, I heard the discussion panel refer to the Don Imus firing, hoping that the incident would be a "teaching moment". No doubt, the panelists are fervently hoping that this will ignite a national dialog about how the races can be more tolerant of one another, how we can become more gender sensitive and how we all need to be watchdogs against intolerance.

Here's what I've learned from the "teaching moment".

1. There's a reason why, in our justice system, we have a trial which determines guilt or innocence, then at a later time, the actual sentencing. The time between trial and sentencing allows the judge to consider the appropriate penalty within certain prescribed guidelines, after a calm, re-evaluation of all the facts, including the context of the offense, any prior history of offenses as well as consideration of the moral or immoral deeds of the defendant. In the Imus case, the trial and sentencing were conducted all at once, in the public court.

In fact, I recent poll I saw yesterday asking how people felt about the firing in response to Don Imus' comments, had about 45% of the respondents thinking that a two week suspension was the correct sentence, 25% agreed with the firings and the remainder thought that nothing should have been done.

Rightly or wrongly, I wonder whether the outcome would have changed had the Rutgers team meeting and announcement of apology acceptance had happened before Don Imus was "sentenced".

2. "Imus in the Morning" sponsors' actions should in no way be taken as as "moral indignation" to what was said. The Imus sponsors have a financial responsibility to their shareholders and a huge amount of choice as to where they place their advertising dollars. There was absolutely NO financial upside to continue to sponsor any controversial show. Their abandonment of Imus had little or nothing to do with Corporate moral outrage. Need proof? How long have most of these sponsors been supporting a show that regularly offended minorities, religions and even personal physical appearance? Most of them, for a long time.

3. The Media is very lazy. When it came to getting a response to the entire issue from the "Black perspective" the only two numbers on speed dial were Rev Sharpton and Rev Jessie Jackson. They appeared on every show, throughout the day for a week. Frankly, the discussion I heard was loud and vehement outrage and rhetoric - the usual shouting points.

By about day 9, I started to hear from other black journalists, preachers and community leaders (and the Rutgers team) who engaged in a much more productive discussion about the events that transpired, which helped me better understand the entire situation. Lesson learned here is to make sure that we (and the media) regularly dialog with a wide range of minority voices from throughout society to improve the quality (and hopefully outcome) of our discussions. Let's lose Sharpton's and Jackson's phone numbers for awhile.

As for whether we've learned a lasting lesson about intolerance, only time will tell.

Could NASCAR Fix Global Warming?

Probably not.

But North America's best attended and fastest growing sport could go a LONG way towards influencing consumers to move to bio-fuels.

After a quick read of http://www.jayski.com/teams/fuel-sponsor.htm, it would appear that NASCAR and their mega-sponsors are sorely lagging behind the rest of the world on environmental issues. Beginning in 2008, NASCAR will BEGIN to use unleaded fuel. C'mon guys, you have to be kidding!

And one word to the petroleum industry. Stop with the "field of daisy's" ads and get on the bandwagon. I don't want to hear how wonderful you guys are for the environment. I want to SEE it in action. The time for pretty "sunny" logos is past, BP. Images of waves crashing on the shore doesn't give Shell a free pass anymore.

Imagine the positive consumer influence NASCAR could have on the switch to bio-fuels if they ran their races on E-85. What about featuring an E-85 logo on the hood of your favorite NASCAR driver? How about Sunoco (NASCAR's official fuel sponsor) adverising "E85 - the fuel of NASCAR" on their pumps?

We'd all be breathing easier next year.

52,496 Reasons to love Milwaukee

It was the fall of 1995 when I was transferred to Milwaukee, by my (then) employer. People kept asking us, how do you like Milwaukee? Is it very different from Toronto? How do you like the Midwest?

My answer to the question is that we immediately liked living in Milwaukee. I describe it as a little big city. It has major league baseball, basketball in town, and our beloved Green Bay Packers, just a couple of hours drive away.

Traffic is virtually non existent (as compared to Chicago or Toronto, my former home town).

But the real reason we like Milwaukee so much is the people who live here. And nothing exemplifies this fact better than the past three days.

The week, Miller Park, home of the Brewers, hosted a three game series between Cleveland Indians and the Angels of Anaheim. On extremely short notice, Cleveland called the folks at Miller park and asked to borrow the venue for their home opener series, because the weather was just too crappy in Cleveland to play baseball. Rather than try to reschedule the entire series, they opted to play three "home games" at Miller Park, while the Brewers were on the road in Florida.

Without hesitation, the folks at Miller Park said yes, then immediately went about trying to make it happen. That's the kind of people we have here.

With virtually no prior warning, the games were placed on sale with all tickets $10 and preferred parking for $8. They sold the field level seats first, then the loge (second level seats) next, trying to sell the venue from the bottom up, in order to run the concession stands effectively and to minimize post game cleaning efforts to those levels where seating was sold.

No one knew whether anyone would show up. With virtually no warning, on a Tuesday evening in April at 6:05pm, 19,031 fans arrived to root for the "hometown" Indians. On Wednesday evening, literally minutes after a record breaking April blizzard blew through town, 16,375 fans enjoyed the second game. Just minutes ago, I returned from the third "getaway" game. The 12:05pm Thursday start garnered 17,090 fans.

Total attendance for the three games was an astounding 52,496. And that's why I love Milwaukee.

Web 2.0 The Dark Side

Few recent issues have garnered as much press, so quickly as the current Don Imus fiasco, where he hurled a racial insult at the Rutgers women's basketball team in a lame attempt to make a "joke".

There has been a tremendous amount of conversation about this incident - 24 hour cable news coverage on MSNBC (which, until today simulcast his radio show) and of course, CNN. The scene was completed with the usual suspects, Rev Sharpton and Jessie Jackson who immediately lobbied for his dismissal and in my opinion overshadowed the very articulate response from the Rutger's coach and team.

But here's the Dark Side of a participatory web..... just a few minutes ago, I searched Google: Here are the results:

Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 1,970,000 for "nappy-headed hos". (0.19 seconds

In three days, the racial epitaph has exploded (almost 2 million references) on the web. The anonymity provided by the web allows all sides to be judge and jury, without the scrutiny of personal accountability.

No one is in the middle on this issue. Fire him (the majority) or give him a second (or third or fourth chance depending on who you listen to) seem to define the entire discussion.

The Dark Side of Web 2.0 has amplified the slur and polarized the discussion without providing adequate direction and discussion to address the underlying issues.

I can't help feeling that the entire incident is coated with hypocrisy; whether from the self-righteous bloggers (on both sides), MSNBC who "listened to their internal employees" just as sponsors were pulling their ads, to Rev Sharpton and Jessie Jackson, (who have had more TV airtime in the past 72 hours than the previous 3 months) and who give some Rappers and Comedians within the Black community a free pass to sling the same mud.

If however this incident causes all the media to re-evaluate and enforce their standards of conduct, the FCC to review enforcement of their policies and practices, Rev Sharpton and Jessie Jackson the voice to address racial injustices regardless of their origin, then perhaps it will be an outcome worth talking about.

I'm not holding my breath.

The voices I'm most interested in listening to over the next week are those of the Rutger's women's basketball team.

Getting to Fourth Base

Yesterday, some friends asked me to meet them for a couple of beers after work, at a small hole-in-the-wall sports bar called Fourth Base.

Before yesterday I didn't even know the place existed.

As it turns out, Fourth Base, which is located just south of Miller Park, (here in Milwaukee) is a Brewer fan favorite. Its walls (and ceiling) are completely covered in sports memorabilia. The televisions constantly broadcast all things sports related. The cramped quarters and noisy atmosphere are augmented by a tremendous staff, surprisingly great food and of course, cold beer.

It's the last place you'd consider high tech.

By complete coincidence I had downloaded Google Earth yesterday morning just to play around with its features and functionality. So when I got the call to meet up at Fourth Base, I decided to see if I could find it using Google Earth.

I launched Google Earth, clicked on "Find Businesses" tab and typed "Fourth Base, Milwaukee".

Lo and behold I was presented with a satellite photo of the area, with a red "push pin" identifying the very building on National Avenue. Clicking on the push pin presented me with an option of driving directions, showed me it had been rated "5 stars" and hosted links to 3 reviews of the place.

I never got the chance to ask the staff whether they knew they were listed on Google Earth, but after sampling the food, beer and service at Fourth Base, I have resolved to do more restaurant research from 200 miles up in space.

Martha, Martha, Martha!

This week Martha Stewart, the Domestic Diva, unveiled her new website. While I can't claim to be a fan, whenever Martha does something marketing related, I pay attention.

The new site is designed to position itself as THE place to go for answers on all things domestic. The big effort here was to re index all the content; tips, recipes, video, products etc to make searching the site far more effective for visitors. They went back and re tagged and indexed 15 years worth of TV, Magazine and Web content. To quote the MSNBC article; "When you search for chicken, you're getting 6,000 results, you're not getting 40 results."

For the record, when you search for "chicken", you only get 1263 results. Arguably it's not 6,000, but it's certainly more chicken than I care to eat.

For those companies out there who are EVA based (the concept of which is to leverage asset performance to the max), Martha's strategy is a good one. After all, the value of Martha's brand lies in her ability to position herself as an expert. 15 years worth of information was (until this week) a tremendously underutilized asset.

So this begs the question. Does your company have any underutilized information asset? How does your website position YOUR company as THE expert in your industry? Chances are, like Martha, you'll discover that there's more to your story, than you're telling.

The Pity Blog

A number of weeks ago, I wrote an article about how fun it was to work with my son. He's a geek (like his old man) and for his birthday, asked for a copy of Photoshop. Over the past number of months he learned the program and put it to use designing T-Shirts, Posters and helping a local company design Websites.

After writing about how fun it was working with him, my daughter demanded equal time. She calls it the "Pity Blog".

Jessie is a junior in High School. Like every girl her age, has a MySpace page and can IM at light speed. In fact as we speak, she's with her mother in Toronto, visiting relatives. While Jessie would NEVER describe herself as a geek (she's way too cool for that) she did bring along her laptop to stay connected with friends. In fact she's keeping tabs on Dad and her brother who are busy being bachelors while they're gone. Just yesterday we made dinner and exchanged photos by phone - including a mandatory picture of a clean kitchen after dinner was done!

A social animal (just like her mother), she can enter a room and take over a party. Perhaps her most amazing talent is being able to conduct a conversation over the phone while IMing 4 friends, listening to music and watching television - all while doing her homework.

She's a whirlwind. When not taking one (of her three) dance classes, or working at a local clothing outlet, she's bombing around the neighborhood in her (slightly dented and scratched) Corolla.

We can always count on Jessie for some excitement. While only driving for about 18 months, Jessie's claim to fame as a driver are her five (very minor) accidents she's had so far, including backing down our driveway (into "the forest"), scraping her car while parking in our garage, backing into a light pole at the local gas station, and being rear ended by a neighbour. Even nature is working against her. Last fall she suffered hail damage to her car! The local repair guys love her.

I have to admit that while she's been in Toronto, its been very quiet around here. I can't wait till she returns and the chaos resumes!

Love ya sweetie.

Web 2.0 and Politics...more musings

I just read that Chris Hughes (creator of Facebook) has joined Obama's campaign team. Not that Obama's campaign needed more coaching in building community - he's already garnered double the number of campaign contributors than his closest Democratic rival. Agree with his politics or not, clearly he's a candidate whose campaign really understands the power of online community.

And now they have added Chris Hughes, who as founder of Facebook, clearly understands how communities can be built and grown over the Web. It will be very interesting to see what is in store.

To that end I have one idea... I've been writing recently about how Dell courageously introduced IdeaStorm - an open discussion with the online community about how to improve their products and services. If you're not familiar with IdeaStorm, click here. Dell invited interested parties (anyone) to suggest improvements. Participants can vote to promote or demote any proposed idea. They also promised to respond to the most popular ideas. So far, they've committed to take action on the most popular idea - which was to expand their offerings of Linux based PCs and laptops. This is already underway.

I bring this up, because the same idea could be a powerful way to further engage Obama support. What if Obama's team launched their own IdeaStorm? Can you imagine the power of unleashing the creativity of hundreds of thousands of people, engaging them in discussions about every major issue facing the country?

The campaign could then respond, by issuing position papers on the highest ranked suggestions or by having Obama issue a YouTube video, responding to the ideas - or both. I can't imagine any other tactic more engaging that allowing voters to interact directly with a candidate and one another. Besides the benefit of potentially surfacing ideas that might otherwise stay at our kitchen tables, it also reinforces the fundamental message that we all need to work on these problems together rather than falling into the trap of thinking and acting along traditional party lines.

This could potentially energize the voting public in a way that's never been done before. For Obama, it might offer a competitive advantage over the other candidates who seem to be struggling with Web2.0 - relying on the shifting tides of public opinion polls and recreating their images to better the outcome. What a great way to sidestep the interests of PACs and special interests and let the voice of the people be heard. What a terrific way to drive a constructive conversation on the issues that matter.

When Web 2.0 goes from campaign to government.....

Yesterday I mused about how Web2.0 was affecting the political races. Here's an opine from the Obama website discussing the same thing.. http://www.barackobama.com/2007/04/05/obamas_savvy_internet_campaign.php

It now makes me wonder. If he gets elected, without PAC money and WITH the social networking skills and apparatus that helped spread his proposed policies, how might Web2.0 affect the way government works?

Can you imagine the power of putting the Iraq War question to the people? Asking Americans how they would support the efforts against global warming? What to do about security on our southern borders?

And what will it say about representatives and senators who don't use the web's collaborative tools to help raise and discuss issues?

The next few years will be an interesting ride!

Will Web 2.0 Change Politics?

That's the question I've been asking myself recently. I've signed up to a number of campaign websites just to observe how campaigns are using the Web to energize each politician's support base. Obama sends me emails monthly and makes it very easy to host, find and attend "house parties" in my neighborhood, to discuss his campaign platform and build support.

In my view this is a tremendous marketing and organizing tool. In 3 months he's raised virtually the same amount of cash as his primary rival who is better known, better connected and has the advantage of an ex-President husband for fundraising.

Of most interest to me is the number of contributors. Raising $25 million across a far wider (double the base) of Hillary's contributors must surely translate into broader support (more votes) at the polling station.

Another recent example of Web 2.0 technology in action is the candidates use of MySpace and YouTube. Just yesterday, I saw Newt Gingrich clarifying remarks he made with respect to his views of English as the "official" language in the U.S.. In the old days he would have had to make the talk show circuit to get his message out (and be exposed to potential bias of the interviewers). Now politicians can quickly craft their own messages, in their own words and distribute it for free to an awaiting internet public.

John McCain has his own MySpace account. His campaign is going through a bit of a learning curve with respect to internet etiquette. His campaign used a MySpace template without proper accreditation, and was subjected to a graffiti attack.

It's clear to me that candidates resonance with the younger voter will in some part be measured by their internet savvy. McCain's campaign is going through a steep learning curve, Obama's seems to be more "at home", with Web 2.0.

I wonder how this will affect the "traditional media buys" that accompany every election? Will it help level the playing field in future elections? Ten years from now, will campaigns be run entirely over the internet? Probably not. But it would be interesting nonetheless.

Instead of making a New Year's Resolution, this year I changed my Windows wallpaper to remind me to keep all things in perspective.

I selected perhaps one of the most famous photographs in the world - Earth Rise. It's the shot from the moon showing the Earth rising over the lunar surface.

It sends me a powerful daily message to try to keep things in perspective and to stay focused on the "big picture". It strikes me that we all live in one big ant farm. To listen to the nightly news about Iraq, local crime or perhaps a local "News Team investigation" on "Escalators - The Silent Killers!"strikes me that our priorities are all screwed up.

When you look at the tiny blue marble we call home, one might think that the environment, health care and generally looking out for one another might take precedence over Corporate profits, gun lobbyists, illegal immigration, disputes over territory, wondering about the real father of Anna Nicole's baby, or whether Sanjaya will be voted off American Idol.

I think we all need a different perspective. Perhaps one from space.