How do you see your business?

 

                                                             for the

I was reading this months issue of Inc. which features Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last. The article featuring him, is an interview he does with Inc's editor-at-large Bo Burlingham. 

There's some really great ideas and discussion points that are covered in the article but one which stood out to me was when Bo spoke about when he personally saw the best of entrepreneurship, which he felt was in the 80's.  He mentions how he invited Steve Jobs to his entrepreneurship class at Stanford in 1988 or '89 and how Jobs was doing NeXT at the time.

Bo quoted Steve Jobs as saying, during one of their conversations, that "we aren't creating computers.  We are creating bicycles for the mind."

This really made me think.

Now, that way of looking at a business is very powerful. It turns the idea of "starting a company" on its head and gives you a whole new perspective. One that poses the question - Is your company just about profits so people can make some good money then retire or are you also trying to do something remarkable that just might push the boundaries of how we interpret the world?

Its not a poetry slam, its a . . .

Word of Mouth

Just the other night I attended a really cool event created by Jeremy Epstein, a good friend and colleague of mine called a WOM Slam. Jeremy's business premise is Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing and how to get fans raving about who you are (I'm raving about him now, so it works!).

For this shindig Jeremy held the event at a restaurant and invited friends and business colleagues to come and brainstorm ideas for a client of his (for this night, JackBe - an enterprise mashup software company) that will create a WOM effect for their product or service. Now to show appreciation/pay for the attendees' services/expertise, dinner for the night was on Jackbe.

What I really liked about this particular event is that it serves as a great case study that exemplifies "what's next" with market trends and how businesses are adapting to the creative economy.

So a few reasons why this idea really resonates with me:

• Its an idea of the future happening now.

• As a creative entrepreneur myself (and a former slam poet) I truly liked the way Jeremy made business and culture converge (word of mouth marketing meets a poetry slam) - aha, our company's own philosophy!

•  With our own business approach of assisting clients (convergence strategy) by helping them see solutions at the intersection of business, culture and technology, this night was another reminder that we're on the right track! Marketing + poetry slamming + technology company = innovation.

Thanks again for a brilliant event Jeremy!

Where does it all lead?

                                                                                           image by Anthony Kolber

We all often jump on the bandwagon. There are a 1001 reasons why we do it. For better or for worse it happens; and for good reasons (as we see it). I mean who doesn't get excited by the hype? Everyone's talking about "it." Everyone's doing "it" (so they say). And who wants to get left behind, all by themselves, when everyone else has gotten on board, is having a good time (or so it seems) and appears as if they are headed off to good times?!

I mean if there is no hype then its boring, right?? And who wants boring?

But the single biggest question to be asked is "where does the hype take you?" When you walk up the stairs turn the corner and head down the walkway, where do you end up?

Ladies and gentlemen hype is a thousand miles wide and an inch deep.

I remember when MySpace was all the rage. It was so hot that Rupert Murdoch snatched it up for $580 million. It also produced the first "bonified" internet star, Tila Tequila, and was the catalyst for numerous new marketing strategies to scour the "MySpace universe" in search off the next star because at that moment that's where the action/hype was at. Well it seems that the MySpace novelty has died down and the hype machine has now turned its focus to Twitter.

I have two questions:

1. Did the the MySpace fanatics have a "post MySpace hype" strategy?
2. When the Twitter craze dies down (and it will) what's the reason anybody should pay them any attention?

The other day I had to laugh when I saw a website entitled The 14 Types of Twitter Personalities - wow. . .

I have nothing against Twitter. I actually hope the founders can make some good money with the thousands upon thousands of twitterers they have using their service (it seems that they do have some sound venture capital in their midst)

But don't get caught up in the hype - it leads to nowhere (plus hype does not have a long term strategy). So my question is in 5 years will people be using words like atwention and celebritweet??

My thoughts also go to the army of folks who will spend valuable time building a twitter empire of followers. I'm still trying to figure out. . .how on earth do you follow what 20,000 people are doing??

One thing to always remember is this. In order for you to go anywhere and do anything of significant value you need solid relationships. And solid relationships happen when people trust you. And trust is built over time. And the amount of time needed to build trust is months and years. Not the 10 seconds it takes to be friended on Facebook, or from when you get followed on Twitter. Of course you can use these tools as another access point to someone you know or already have an established relationship with but not vice versa.

Well I am always a huge fan of the "new" (ideas, technology, products, etc), and am never to be the one to get in the way of progress. So by all means go forth, tweet and prosper! And in the meantime...just like everyone else...will be trying to figure out exactl how tweeting may actually bring about prosperity...hmm?

Genius is 1 percent inspiration. . .

Perspiration

About 3 months ago one of our current clients, the XAgency (one of the most innovative companies you may not have heard of, yet) turned me onto Behance (the organizational gurus of the creative class - as stated by Coolhunting) about 3 months ago. A couple of days later I came across one of Scott Belsky's articles (the ceo and founder) entitled the "the mass visionary" which discusses the necessity of visionaries understanding the masses when it comes to successfully launching products and ad campaigns. It was a great piece highlighting their thoughts on why ideas from great minds often fail. I've been staying abreast of their work ever since.

So recently I came across their 99% conference taking place at the Times Center in NYC, April 16th-17th.

I personally loved the name. In one small phrase they said it all. Borrowing from Edison's famous quote about genius, they captured, in a conference name, their intentions of exploring the relationship between creativity, process and hard work and how to make ideas happen.

Below are just some of the presenters - Definitely check out Behance and make the conference if you can. I just might see you there!

If IM could talk. . .

I was dying when I saw this (sooo funny). 

Two years ago in one of my earlier posts I blogged about how Current_TV was transforming the new business and media landscape. Two years later they have a "TV show" like this. Their creativity and innovation in programming continues. . .