Category Archives: Consulting

April 25, 2016 · 10:01 am

Being Your Fool

Unless you’ve been off the planet for the last few days, you’re aware that Prince passed away last week. While the word “genius” is overused, it applies in his case. I hope you’ve seen some of the examples of his art – they’ve been everywhere as the tributes pour in. It’s one of those tributes I’d like to discuss today because it is instructive when it comes to business.

English: Prince playing at Coachella 2008.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Before we get to that example, let me remind you that one aspect of Prince’s genius was his foresight in seeing how the internet and digital technology would disrupt the music business. This is an excellent overview of his relationship with the Internet from the Washington Post. While Price was an early adapter, appreciating how music could now be sold directly to fans without a record label, he also recognized how that very process could wipe out a revenue stream for musicians. As he put it: “Tell me a musician who’s got rich off digital sales. Apple’s doing pretty good though, right?”

Prince recorded an unreleased song called “There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool,” and that gets us to our business point today.  One of the “tributes” to Prince came from AMC Theaters.  They announced that they would play Prince’s film “Purple Rain” in their theaters this weekend to honor him.  In my mind, this is the furthest thing from a tribute: it’s greed.  There is no mention of AMC letting patrons see Prince’s work for free.  They are charging full price.  There is no mention that all of the admission proceeds will be donated to any of the numerous charities Prince quietly supported throughout his career. I might be totally off base here and AMC might be doing something honorable, but even if I am, the business point still applies.

As businesses, our motives can’t be questioned.  It gets to the issue of trust, and trust is a critical currency these days.  If we’re not believable, whether it’s with respect to our products, our customer service, or our alignment with our customers, we’re in deep trouble.  Maybe AMC is letting people in for free or donating the proceeds but they’re being awfully loud about the film and quiet about the rest. Unlike the Prince lyric, people don’t like being your fool.  Sure, show the movie, but don’t call it a way to honor anyone when you’re lining your pockets using a tragedy.  I’m not that kind of fool.  You?

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, Huh?, Music, Reality checks

Tagged as , , , , , ,

April 20, 2016 · 11:03 am

Bad Code And Bad Business Thinking

The digital world continues to be abuzz about ad blocking. Many in the digital ad space have expressed everything from frustration to outrage, calling those who use blockers everything from misguided to thieves. They don’t, however, seem to acknowledge the root of the problem: bad code and bad business thinking. Now that mobile ad blocking is on the rise, they are turning up the rhetoric but let’s take a quick look at the problem.

It comes as no shock to anyone who has a mobile device that there are no unlimited data plans anymore. Every byte is counted against a cap, and in a world where images and videos are becoming the currency, those bytes add up pretty quickly. In essence, every screen, whether on a computer or a mobile device has a cost to the user, so it’s in the user’s best interest to be as efficient as possible when loading those pages or screens. More data also means shorter battery life since the device has to work to load and render. With me so far?

Now let’s revisit an analysis done by The NY Times last October. They spent a few days on some prominent sites measuring how much the ad blockers cut down on web page data sizes and improved loading times, and also how much they increased a smartphone’s battery life. The results?

The benefits of ad blockers stood out the most when loading theBoston.com website. With ads, that home page on average measured 19.4 megabytes; with ads removed using Crystal or Purify, it measured four megabytes, and with 1Blocker, it measured 4.5 megabytes. On a 4G network, this translated to the page taking 39 seconds to load with ads and eight seconds to load without ads.

In another example, the home page of The Los Angeles Times measured 5.7 megabytes with ads. After shedding ads, that dropped to 1.6 megabytes with Crystal and 1.9 megabytes with Purify and 1Blocker. On a 4G network, the page took 11 seconds to load with ads and four seconds to load without ads.

I’d encourage you to look at the interactive graphic associated with the article. The cost to the consumer can be anywhere from 2x to 4x when not using a blocker of some sort, and load times are much less when using one as the examples, above, show.

I get the problems these blockers cause, but maybe the bad code and bad business thinking that forces the bad code (lots of external calls for ad serving, user tracking, etc.) need rethinking instead of a lot of whining? What do you think?

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, digital media, Huh?

Tagged as , , , ,

April 18, 2016 · 11:55 am

It’s Not Just The Great Idea

I attended a workshop last week. It was through an organization that works with veterans of our military, teaching them a number of the skills they’ll need to succeed as entrepreneurs. I was pleased to be asked to participate and I was also pleased that a number of others were there to lend their support and knowledge to the vets who attended.

One point that I think became clear as the conversation progressed was that a great idea is not necessarily a great business. It also became clear that skills beyond hard work were key to turning a good (or great) idea into a wonderful business. While it was very evident that no one was going to outwork the vets in the room who had begun their business journey, it was also very evident that a bit of guidance could make those journeys more productive.

A few of the budding entrepreneurs presented their ideas to the group.  They were given only 2 minutes, which is a challenging amount of time even for very experienced presenters to make their case.  One person began with the problem and explained the solution his product provided, which is a spot on way to attack this challenge.  Another told a dramatic story and told how she came up with the product but didn’t expand what was her compelling problem into a much broader need.  The last presenter was just confusing.  While he has a fantastic product that could revolutionize small farms, he couldn’t explain the problem and I was left (along with the rest of the audience) wondering what exactly it was he was selling and to whom.  As an aside, the more senior folks in the room helped him craft his pitch to make all of those things more clear.

It’s not just a great idea nor is it a willing attitude and hard work.  Passion is a prerequisite but it’s not enough.  These vets were smart enough to know that and were taking the time to learn the skills required.  They weren’t embarrassed to say “I don’t know” or “I need help.”  Are you?

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, Reality checks

Tagged as , , , ,