Monthly Archives: June 2012

June 13, 2012 · 9:52 am

Why?

Why did you get out of bed this morning? Habit? Hunger? Bladder issues?

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Hopefully the main reason was that you couldn’t wait to get going on what you were going to do today.  Trust me – I’m well aware that not every day can be like that but when the balance between excitement vs. dread over the day ahead tilts the wrong way, it just might be time to rethink things a bit.  The reality is that many of us just keep on doing what we’re doing, feeling lucky to have a job and income, and wait for the weekend to come around.  Thoreau‘s “life of quiet desperation” lives on.

Companies are like that too.   While I don’t share some folks’ belief that companies are people, I do think that they have a certain amount in institutional inertia.  They keep on doing what they’ve been doing, very focused on what that is and how they’re going to do it.  They rarely stop, however, and think about why they’re doing – what’s their purpose beyond making money for the owners/shareholders.

I got to thinking about this as I read the book “Start With Why“, by Simon Sinek.  They quick summary is that the most important thing leaders can do is to figure out why a company or organization exists and why that should be meaningful to customers and others in society. Once you get the answer and you convey it to everyone that touches the organization, the rest of the decisions about what to do and sell and how to do it become infinitely easier.  Marketing, social campaigns, product choices, packaging, everything.

That principle extends to individuals.  We need to think about who we are, what we stand for, be a bit more introspective.  I think some of the unhappiness many people feel when they think about going to work is the dissonance between their own”why” and that of their company (or the lack of one at their job).  How about you?  What do you think?

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June 12, 2012 · 7:41 am

Buying Shirts

If you’ve ever walked through the part of a big department store where they sell men’s shirts (and ties – remember them?), you might have noticed that there’s almost an infinite number of choices.

WASHINGTON - DECEMBER 28: A shopper looks thr...

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At least it seems so to me. Collar styles, colors, patterns, and cuffs are all mixed up in a lot of variations. I suppose it’s the same in the dress department – an overwhelming number of possibilities.  I bring this up because a project in which I’m involved has stumbled into a figurative department store.  The technology is filled with possibilities.  So many, in fact, that we’re at a point where we need to exclude some intriguing avenues just so we can get to the checkout with something in our carts.

Working with highly energized, very creative people has a downside.  They tend to see so many possibilities – all the shirts and dresses – that they’re often running off in a hundred directions while not really advancing.  To a certain extent, that sort of war gaming is critical.  It’s a less formal type of decision tree analysis that many of us like to do.  However, there comes a time when the branches of that tree with less potential or which don’t meet near term goals (and for new ventures that usually includes kicking off revenue pretty quickly) need to be trimmed off.

In this case, what we’re trying to do is to lay out all the possibilities, to look at the possible outcomes of making each choice, to assign values and probabilities to each branch of the tree and to make a decision based on our best guesses and whatever information we already have.  In other words, buy a shirt.  We’ve spent enough time trying things on and holding them up to the mirror.  We need to get out of the store and get to work.  And so do you!

Thoughts?

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June 11, 2012 · 10:26 am

What Boxing And Your Business Have In Common

You might be a fan of the sweet science or you might think it’s barbaric.  In either case, there’s something to be learned from the big fight that took place over the weekend.  I mean the Manny Pacquiao – Timothy Bradley bout that ended with Bradley winning in a split decision.  From the minute the result was announced there have been calls for an investigation.  There is an excellent article summarizing the issues in USA Today which also looks at 9 other bouts that had controversial decisions rendered by the judges.  Of course, the issue isn’t really with the judgement – it’s with the entire system of a judged sport.

Gymnastics, diving, figure skating, freestyle skiing – there’s a pretty long list of sports in which winners are decided not by a clock or a scoreboard but by a human being’s impression.  Boxing is a hybrid – in theory a knockout or other stoppage negates the need for judges at all (although we could argue the referee’s judgement about when someone is incapable of defending themselves plays a role too).  What does any of that have to do with your business?

Think about how often we insert our own judgement in decision-making when we don’t have to.  Which version of an ad is more effective?  Which page design is better?  What packaging will attract more customers?  What types of content increase engagement?  Often we look to the HiPPO involved – the highest paid person’s opinion – when it’s very possible to conduct simple A/B tests or spend a few hours looking at existing data.  We ignore the scoreboard and go to the judges. We’re generally not making art – we’re conducting commerce.  Because of that, what I happen to like is less important than which customer-facing experience yield the best return.

In the digital world, its pretty easy to test, adjust, and re-test ad infinitum.  In the non-digital world, product tests, packing tests, etc. are the norm (I’m often disappointed to find that some great product I’ve found is just a test and disappears).  We all need to abandon our egos and learn to love our data a bit more.  Otherwise, we might end up like Manny – on the wrong end of a bad decision.

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