Category Archives: Thinking Aloud

May 6, 2013 · 9:28 am

Stupid Is As…

I read something a few days ago that has stuck with me. I was going to write about it at the time but I couldn’t really figure out how not to make it a political issue because as you know we don’t do politics here on the screed. Over the weekend as I was thinking about it some more, I realized why I can’t get it out of my head.

In a word: Stupidity.

But there’s a business point in here too. Here is one article  from USAToday about what’s been going on in the state of Virginia. In a nutshell, as the article reports,

Virginia passed… a new law last month that lowers the gas tax for everyone, but slaps a $64-per-year fee on hybrid and electric car owners to help make up for what those drivers aren’t paying at the pump….Legislation that would levy a fee or tax on greener wheels is now pending in Texas, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Arizona.

Pure genius at work here. Encourage people to buy fuel-efficient vehicles to curtail gasoline consumption (as well as to help the environment) but penalize them because they’re not paying enough gasoline tax.  We could spend a lot of time here on the politics but let’s discuss the optics instead.  This seems stupid.  Is that a shallow, uniformed take on the matter?  Maybe, but I think it’s dumb, and that’s all that matters.  In fact, everyone to whom I’ve mentioned it concurs and many of them are not at all shallow people.  In fact, they’re almost universally well-informed and can take a broader view of issues than their own opinions.  Which is the business point.

From time to time we all need to take a step back and get to the place where our customers and potential customers are.  They don’t have all the facts you do nor do they share the same perspective as you.  Even if they do, they just might not care.  You need to be in that “outside” place and ask yourself if what you’re doing – a price change, a package modification, a marketing campaign, whatever – seems stupid.  For example, cutting a 12 ounce package to 11 ounces with a label that says “great new package, same great price” is stupid.

Maybe there’s a good reason to encourage a behavior and then to penalize it but I can’t figure it out.  There’s no good reason to ignore the optics of something as a businessperson.  If it appears stupid, it probably is.  You agree?

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April 29, 2013 · 9:54 am

Much Ado About Much Ado

Over the weekend, we went to the movies (The Big Wedding, since you’re asking).

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

As we sat watching the previews of coming attractions, up came a trailer for the new Joss Whedon movie. It’s a comedy about two couples and their very different viewpoints on love and it’s filled with twists and turns and snappy dialog.  Here’s the thing:  it was written 400 years ago and yet it seems from the trailer that the script is the same.  “Much Ado About Nothing” was written by Shakespeare long before “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and yet the same guy (Whedon) can make both of them work.

As I sat watching, I was struck immediately by the fact that while the look is modern and the technology that’s delivering the “play” (digital projection) is quite state of the art, it’s the same Elizabethan language.  Which of course prompted a business thought.

More and more, brands and businesses are content producers.  I’m not sure Shakespeare ever thought of himself as such, but that’s what we’d brand him today.  We may think of what he produced as art but at the time it was often about commerce, so I don’t think of it as totally dissimilar.  What’s amazing is that not only has it survived but it has been reinterpreted across many different channels for centuries.  We saw Macbeth as a one-man show a couple of weeks ago and it worked as well as the times we’ve seen it with a full cast.

Here’s the thing: you probably don’t think of what you produce as having to hold up for 400 years.  I’m not Shakespeare did either but isn’t that a great goal?  Motion pictures didn’t happen for a few hundred years and yet this is at least the fifth film version of the script, each of which looks different but all of which remain true to Shakespeare’s vision.

Given the short-term mentality of much of media and business today, it’s easy to think about the next content cycle rather than the long term.  Isn’t it amazing what can happen when a little extra time and care are invested in creating something timeless?  Going viral indeed – for centuries!

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April 22, 2013 · 11:38 am

How Many, Not How

Mondays are no fun.  As you might know if you’ve been on the screed on a Monday, I spend most of my weekends when the ground isn’t covered with snow playing golf.

English: Golfing in Ontario golf course, Oregon.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mondays are the days when my obsession with the game (and my lack of golfing prowess) usually shows up here.  This Monday, it’s about a thought I had while I was playing in a tournament on Saturday.  I was playing on a team with a person who had clubs that were at least 10 years old.  Golf technology changes very rapidly, and his driver was the size of my five wood (meaning it was way smaller than any modern driver).  The shaft of the club was slightly bent down by the club head and I had no clue how he could hit the ball.

Hit the ball he did – some of our team’s best drives came off that club.  In fact, he hit some amazing shots both good and bad.  My favorite was a worm-burner that rolled and rolled and rolled maybe 150 yards until it stopped rolling 10 feet from the pin.  Which reminded me of the old golf adage “it’s not how, it’s how many” which is my business thought today as well.

It seems to me we spend a lot of time thinking about and discussing the tools we use in business just as there’s an equipment obsession in golf.  Those are really about the “how.”  No matter what tools you’re using, none of them matter if you’re not being consistent and clear about what you’re trying to do with them – the “how many.” It’s easy to get caught up processes and in so doing you miss a focus on achieving the real goal.   If you haven’t clarified the things you want to accomplish over time, there’s little chance of success.  The tool or app is less important than the way you use it.  The process isn’t the business.

We’ve all had bosses who focused on when a report was delivered and then never read it to see what was inside.  Woe be to those who missed a deadline, even if the work was crap.  That’s “how”, not “how many.”  Take an extra day and achieve perfection is my preference.  Hit one long and straight with a crooked driver.  Make a par with an awful shot that winds up next to the pin.  There are no pictures on the scorecard, folks.

You with me?

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