Tag Archives: Reality checks

November 26, 2013 · 9:46 am

Why Saying “Thanks” Is Good Business

Let’s say “thanks” this TunesDay, or at least consider how often it’s been said musically.  With Thanksgiving right around the corner it seems appropriate to do so as well as to think about the business point.

We begin with the weekly music video – this is one of my favorite thank you songs and it just happens to be from a guy named Keith.  It reminds us that

People say they’ll stand beside you/They swear they’ll never leave
But when the rain started falling/You know it only fell on me

We all find out who is loyal and who is not and how saying “thanks” may not even be enough to show one’s appreciation. We generally find out when times get rough, as they have for most businesses over the last few years.  The lads in Led Zepplin (“Thank You“) have a similar take, and say thanks for:

Today, my world it smiles, your hand in mine, we walk the miles/Thanks to you it will be done, for you to me are the only one.

It’s nice to make someone’s world smile, but it makes the point that we might not even realize the effect doing so has on the recipient nor the depth of the response it can bring.  Dido (“Thank You“)sort of gives thanks for the same thing:

 I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life/Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life

Oh sure, her significant other handed her a towel and called her during the day, but mostly this is about how having a strong bond with someone can lift them up just by doing little things and being there.  Natalie Merchant (Kind & Generous) has an even longer list:

I want to thank you/For so many gifts
You gave with love and tenderness
I want to thank you

I want to thank you/For your generosity
The love and the honesty
That you gave me

I want to thank you/Show my gratitude
My love and my respect for you
I want to thank you

There is more thanks offered in the song but it shows that when we stop to think about it, we have quite a bit for which to be thankful.  It could be as simple as letting someone be themselves (Sly & The Family Stone – “Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin“) or for being a friend (Andrew Gold and also the theme to Golden Girls!) or even for music (ABBA).  Which raises the business point.

Every business has a lot for which to be thankful.  Loyal customers, hard-working employees, honest partners.  How often and in what ways do we say “thank you?”  As the above lyrics show, a little thanks can go a long way, we might not realize the powerful effect it can have on the recipient, and this is probably a great time to spread some around, don’t you think?

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November 25, 2013 · 11:09 am

Vampire Media

Let’s begin the week with another look at the declining state of my former business, television.

iPad 2 - Home Screen

(Photo credit: William Hook)

Now you might find it odd that I feel the business is in decline given that viewing of content created for TV (both network and cable) is pretty solid in the aggregate.  I agree.  I’m not one of those folks that thinks there’s nothing good on TV.  In fact, I think there’s more really excellent programming on than maybe ever before.  The issue is that it’s spread out among hundreds of channels, each of which we consumers are paying for in some way.  Unless, of course, they’re on a pay channel such as HBO in which case only a minority of homes have a chance to see it.

But that’s not our topic.  Instead, I want to talk about vampire media and their role in all of this.  No, it’s not a tome about “True Blood” and its ilk.  Vampire media refers to iPads, other tablets, and other devices which come out at night, generally in the home.  It’s through these devices that much of what was primetime viewing has shifted from the big screen and the major content providers to the small screen and other providers.  You’ll notice I’m not saying “small providers.”  YouTube is bigger than any TV network in terms of viewership and reach.  Most importantly for our discussion today, these devices do not require a cable to deliver video, just an internet connection.  The effect?

In just a year and a half, cable television providers’ share of the video market has declines from around 52% to 47%.  In fact, Nielsen‘s estimate of TV households has declined each of the last two years, the first time I can ever remember it ever declining at all.  Sure, the business remains solid for now, but that’s due to two factors – high ad rates masking the audience declines and the subscriber fees the content distributors take in.  In my opinion, that too will change in the not too distant future.  Higher fees are coming from a smaller user base.  At some point the economics of paying for a lot of content you never consume don’t make sense.  This admittedly long piece does an excellent job of summarizing all the numbers.  You should check it out.

The holidays are here.  More tablets, Roku boxes, Chromecasts, and new video consoles, all of which permit the viewing of most of the same content available via traditional programming services will be sold and received.  The vampires are coming out.  Have they landed at your house?

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November 13, 2013 · 10:41 am

Are You A Workplace Troll?

Anyone who runs a website or a blog is familiar with trolls.

By Åsmund Ødegård from Oslo/Ås, Norway (Hunderfossen Uploaded by Arsenikk)

You know them – the evil ones who pop up from underneath a log someplace, spew forth some usually unprintable comment or begin a flame war, and leave. You are then left to clean up the mess.  They’re not a new phenomenon:

Yet there is a certain race of men, that either imagine it their duty, or make it their amusement, to hinder the reception of every work of learning or genius, who stand as sentinels in the avenues of fame, and value themselves upon giving Ignorance and Envy the first notice of a prey

That was Dr. Samuel Johnson in 1750, long before the internet. But trolls aren’t the topic today. Instead, I want to talk about criticism itself, since in a strange way that is how trolls see themselves.  I happen to think criticism is important, and done well it can be enlightening.  Dr. Johnson believed in critics too:

You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables.

That gets to the root of people like me (who read or watch films or eat out) criticizing works (books, films, restaurants) even though we can’t create those things (books, movies, dishes) on our own.  It’s possible to be educated enough in something and to have an informed, cogent opinions without actually being able to do the thing in question.  If not, why do we have sports columnists or book reviewers?

The thing about good criticism is that it’s not of the “you suck” troll variety.  It is specific and measures the work in question against other works and benchmark standards as well as against the reviewer’s own experience.  Not all criticism is negative either.  A review that says something was great is just as useless as the “it sucked” variety if it doesn’t explain the “why”.

So ask yourself this – are you a troll in the workplace when you offer criticism without the appropriate additional information?  Telling someone their work isn’t good without explaining why and helping to find a road to making it better makes you one in my book.  It’s just as bad to compliment someone’s work without explaining why it’s good.  How is the recipient of your nicety to replicate what made it great if they don’t know what that was?

Criticism is an integral part of daily life.  The thing I try to remember is to be a critic and not a troll.  Are you with me on that?

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