Driving Business
Everybody take a seat in the auditorium. Turn off all phones, smart phones and any other distractions. No drinking or eating, with the possible exception of water and glucose tablets for diabetics in the audience. No talking. No texting – well you already turned of your devices, right? In any case, focus, focus, focus. Focus on the speaker, the slides, the message, and take good notes. Well, that’s the old way. The traditional way. Not the way to start a new media conversation, because you can’t have a conversation while sequestered in a dimly lit room. New media is about disruption, except that you can’t be disruptive while focusing on one thing.
This may or may not be the message from a presentation at Minnesota Public Radio’s “Wits” series. The featured guest was John Hodgman, an author, editor, actor (as a PC in Apple commercials) and self-described cheesemonger – he dreams about cheese. Hodgman touted the value of distraction and digression – the brain chemistry during social media distraction is the same as the brain chemistry during combat. Instead of a straightforward storytelling style, he embraced his inner absent-minded professor, wandering from topic to topic – don’t give a man a free computer, he’ll only use it for a day; attack ads could be good for winning a fight but henchmen, widely available in a bad economy, shouldn’t be ruled out.
Meanwhile MPR allowed audience members to use various devices to Tweet and Text about the conversation in the auditorium. While some complain about today’s excessive distractions, Hodgman and others at the presentation claim that there have always been distractions, and that said distraction is the food of creativity. Of course, John Hodgman is a humorist and has a way with presenting material. But ultimately, the audience at the event was quite engaged and entertained, and they were able to use social media to spread the word across a much wider audience in the Twittersphere. If only distraction didn’t require so much time.
Jerry Seinfeld jokes that most people at a funeral, faced with the choice of either being the body in the coffin or the live person giving the eulogy, would choose – the coffin? This sad state of affairs is due to the fact that most people are deathly afraid of public speaking. It’s the embodiment of performance anxiety. And over the ages there have been all sorts of strange strategies including the rather curious tip – try to imagine members of the audience in their underwear, or worse. But Kate Hayes, who is somewhat of an expert on the topic believes that with a few strategies, anyone can overcome fear and give that all important presentation the treatment it deserves.
Keep in mind, the primacy and recency effect with a strong beginning and a strong ending because people recall the first and last things they heard. Begin with your name and affiliation and a word or two about your topic – you want them to remember your name. After that, an anecdote, quote or unexpected fact, and if you can make them laugh, even better. But forget that if your joke is lame. In the middle of your presentation, remember that audiences “hear” with their eyes so the more that you can step away from the podium, gesticulate, maybe dance – unless that doesn’t come naturally to you, in which case they’ll remember your awkwardness. Use props if you can. End your presentation with a recap of your main points. And because presentations are a critical part of business strategy, it’s a good idea to get books or coaching for those who are truly nervous but need to give presentations.
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
How does Apple design its iThings? One imaginary scenario might put Steve Jobs in a secret underground bunker, fashioning these devices from garage sale finds, with his bare hands. With cameras and private, prying eyes watching everyone’s move, this would seem to be the only way to keep the next big device under wraps – right? Well, it turns out that’s not how things are done these days. That secret, underground bunker is merely the stuff of myth – though no one should rule it out. But reports show that Apple has been employing a group called SurfaceInk, an engineering and product design firm that almost anyone can hire – if only they too could envision the iPad. SurfaceInk worked for Hewlett Packard, Palm, Abbot and Bell Sports among others. From medical devices to game controllers to “ruggedized” equipment for harsh conditions, SurfaceInk’s designers and engineers have been behind the scenes.
But along the way, SurfaceInk decided that instead of merely designing iThings they could also design numerous things that are similar and put them out into the marketplace under other licenses. After all, who better to compete with the beyond popular iPad than the very firm that designed the iPad? They aren’t actually marketing it as such but they did roll out their own Tablet computer prototype, in different sizes for anyone to license. Such a development on the part of SurfaceInk led to the obvious move by Apple – a parting of the ways. For now there is no news on Apple’s plans for engineering and design of future products so we’ll all just have to wait and keep an eye out for that underground bunker.
“Good leaders make people feel that they’re at the very heart of things, not on the periphery.” So says Warren Bennis, who is considered to be one of the leading experts on leadership. And it could be said that if you’re an expert on leadership, you should be a leading one else you wouldn’t have any followers, in which case, you may not be a leader and your expertise would be in jeopardy. There could be entire essays full of quotes from Bennis, who has spent probably six decades discussing leadership. “People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.” And, “Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.” Presumably, we can all name at least a few organizations that dance.
Looking ahead, Bennis believes future leaders will be those who best understand people. The first step to this is to understand oneself. “Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself.” As he sees it, those who understand themselves will also be more comfortable engaging in open communication with others in the organization, thus building trust. Trust is at the foundation of consistently and reliably meeting customer expectations. Additionally, a good leader is an optimist who believes that obstacles are meant to be conquered. Such a leader is Intel’s Andrew Grove who though he grew up in dire circumstances, believed that he could win the Nobel Prize. And finally, “There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.”
Digital advertising is not like the advertising of old and as such it requires a different kind of creativity, perhaps even a different definition of creativity. While there could be mass quibblings about whether creativity by definition is more than one thing and therefore doesn’t need to be redefined, experts believe the digital age requires new definitions for most things, including creativity. Strategist Ana Andjelic says that what matters most in the age of Facebook friends and Twitter feeds, are relationships, connections and interactions. As a result, the best creatives are those who can craft strategies to capitalize on these types of media. In such a scenario, creating just for creativity’s sake is not really creative at all.
Gone are the days when a brand could simply put out a campaign with good copy or with a twist on popular culture. Those are static, analog style campaigns and unlikely to gain traction in the digital world. New advertisement needs to be interactive. The most effective ideas are the ones that lead to a chain reaction where people broadcast it to their Facebook friends. All of which leads to more brand awareness. Old fashioned ads are going the way of newspapers, magazines and the other print products where they once thrived. In this view, creativity is more strategy than art. Of course, it’s possible that without art strategy would be boring and therefore not very strategic at all.
It is commonly thought that people who behave in a virtuous manner ultimately continue on the straight and narrow path, making the world a better and more moral place. They are the ones who will save the earth, save the children and possibly the whales. But it turns out, virtuous behavior can merely be a precursor to a vice filled life – though not necessarily in a bad way. Whether shopping for healthy foods, forgoing plastic bags in favor of bring-your-own or contributing to charity, good behavior can ultimately lead to bad. Perhaps virtuous behavior doesn’t come from totally virtuous individuals but rather from people who upon doing something good, feel justified in engaging in some less than stellar conduct. It could be said that there is vicious virtue and vice circle where one leads to the other and possibly back again – though not all vice need originate with virtue.
Research in human behavior has shown that, “single, small acts of virtuous behavior actually predispose us to behave worse.” People who bought one item that was considered to be a healthy or diet food would then splurge on “vice items,” say, a decadent dessert. After performing charitable acts, people were more likely to buy luxury items such as designer clothing rather than practical items such as oven cleaner. All of which could be good news for those who plan marketing strategies. Place diet sodas next to desserts and bundle luxurious goods with some form of charitable contribution. The term for this is the “licensing effect.” Doing something virtuous gives a person license to cheat. In which case angels falling may not be an oxymoron, but a way of life.
Some are calling it the “piracy paradox.” This is the belief that copying is not necessarily the piracy evil that intellectual property rightists believe it is. Copying a design has a tendency to generate new interest and markets for the design long after the original becomes old, faded and boring. In essence, freedom to copy designs could be good for business. This is said to be especially true in the fashion design world where the seasons cycle through much faster. As a result, intellectual property as it relates to fashion has not enjoyed the level of protection as music, arts and technology.
But now there is a new effort underway to protect designs from being copied and sold on the open market where any Average Joe or Jane can get a Red Carpet look for less. Whether it’s a purse, sundress or sunglasses, an original design of it will enjoy protected status for three years. However, in order to claim intellectual property rights over a design, the designer must illustrate that the original is a unique, “non-trivial” and “non-utilitarian” difference from all previous designs. So it won’t be an easy task for designers who claim their designs are being pirated. The proposed legislation would still give the design copying industry plenty of leeway to go forth and duplicate for the mass market. It’s just that credit will need to be given where credit is due.
The 3D of bygone years is not like the 3D of today. “It’s immersive,” say the people at Samsung. The company recently released the, “World’s First,” portable 3D, Blu-ray player. Maybe some day there will be 3D contact lenses, (3D lasik surgery?) but for now you still have to wear the glasses. Once you’re down with that, you can practically feel the images surrounding you in your room or car or wherever you may choose to view your Blu-ray discs because, well, it’s portable. The portable Blu-ray player has a 10.3 inch screen with 1080p high-def video, and a three hour battery. It also has built-in Wi-Fi to bring you the best of the web with “downloadable widgets and apps.” Isn’t built in Wi-Fi practically a standard these days?
Samsung also has other 3D Blu-ray players in its assortment of products. Some are giving the Blu-ray 3D players rave reviews for “outstanding picture” in both 3D and 2D Blu-ray mode. But there are also complaints that the players don’t always remember your place in a movie once you’ve pressed “Stop.” And while there is a “slow forward” feature there is said to be no “slow back,” which means you need to slow forward and fast back then slow forward, all of which sounds like actions from a modern dance. There are also contradicting viewpoints on whether discs load quickly or not, though the Samsung folks insist that they’re working hard to eliminate lag time when you start a movie. In any case it’s the experience that matters and if it can be an immersive, 3D, Blu-ray experience, that’s even better.