Recently, I bought a bonsai tree for my work desk. There are shoots sprouting up everywhere and it’s getting to the point where I need to start pruning — an essential element in developing a bonsai tree.
As bonsai trees take a very long time to grow into beautiful pieces of art, planning and vision is essential. It’s not about what looks good now, it’s about what it will look like in the 10, 20, 30 years from now.
The same is true for business. Though you need to overcome many hurdles now, what do you envision your company to be in 5 years? CEOs are often faced with this question. Based on the vision, it’s about finding practical strategy to get there.
Just as clipping the new growth is an action that will make my bonsai tree beautiful 10, 20, 30 years from now, so too are the actions of business leaders. Industry, product, location, clients, team are many of the elements that make-up the vision. It is the culmination of those actions that makes that vision attainable.
Do you know where the New York Minute originated from? The New York Minute came from the subway time schedule. All trains leave one minute later than scheduled, on purpose. That extra minute is for the laggards that cannot make the train on time.
Allow yourself a New York Minute. You might find you get more accomplished. By adding a “minute,” you allow for flexibility. Maybe you have a New York Minute by scheduling your blog posts ahead of schedule so you aren’t overwhelmed by other work and cannot post. Or, maybe it’s working on your business plan while you have a couple of minutes to spare. Because if you do not allow yourself that extra time, it might never get finished, or at least finished on time.
“Buying” a minute can be tremendously valuable to effectively manage your time. Whether it’s catching the train (though you’re late) or crafting an A+ business plan (as you allow more review time), a New York Minute can make all the difference.
It’s proven: we like to do fun things. We also like to take shortcuts with dull or tedious tasks (generally speaking). Not everyone takes the shortcuts in life, but if you have a choice between four flights of stairs and an elevator, most people are going to choose the elevator.
However, what if you made taking the stairs fun. Volkswagon put this “fun theory” to the test when they made a piano out of a staircase:
They also made throwing out trash and recycling fun. By simply adding a sound effect or making a game out of recycling, they’ve generated more interest and consequently, more impact.
For non-profits, the fun theory can be the difference in minimal impact or long-term sustainability. By injecting fun into your initiatives, you can create a lasting impact on your audience and those you support. Instead of starting with the money, start with the fun.
For instance, take jet skiing. Why not create a course whereby jet skiiers donate X amount of dollars for each hoop they go through. It drums up support in a fun, impactful way. It’s not enough to ask for money, put a little fun into the mix and people are more willing to help out.
Mozilla recently announced its new project, Raindrop. From the company that brought you Thunderbird, an open-source e-mail client, Raindrop aims to make the inbox fun again. By eliminating the democratic inbox (my work e-mail has the same value as a JetBlue coupon), Raindrop aims to bring some intelligence to e-mail. It will create a value hierarchy whereby e-mail that is more important to you will have a more prominent spot in the inbox.
Though Raindrop will not provide all of the answers to e-mail, it taps into the emerging trend in web 2.0 (or maybe web 3.0) of intelligent computing. With seemingly endless amounts of data, it can be overwhelming to face it all. As a result, we are going to increasingly rely on technology that understands our unique preferences and does the sifting for us.
Google Reader’s Magic feature is a great example of this. Essentially, Google Reader Magic scours the web for posts that are most relevant to you. As you build your user history, it can better find information that you’d be interested in. Therefore, you don’t need 250 subscriptions and waste time finding interesting nuggets. Simply build a small browsing history and let the algorithm do the work for you.
As more data and information permeates our lives, web intelligence tools will become more necessary than ever before. Those companies that can develop intelligence tools to make sense of this overwhelming amount of data will ride this rising trend.
The taco meat was almost ready to drain, the dishes were nearly done, and rice is almost ready to add to the soup. The soup is almost boiling over and wait… where’s the rice? Now the tomato soup is splattering all over the stove and my hands are covered in soap and the thought of the meat grease catching on fire is wracking my brain, and where’s the rice?
As a naturally frantic, harebrained cook, this was a typical night in the kitchen. I never did end up finding the rice (though I know I had bought a bag earlier that week) and my taco dinner was more like greasy meat and shells.
Many brands fail to launch because they are like me in the kitchen—disorganized, unprepared and last minute. Had I been responsible in the kitchen, I could have picked up another bag of rice before beginning the soup, doing the dishes, baking the shells and cooking the meat.
Conceptually thinking about your business, from a high-level to the detail, is essential before starting it. A great exercise in conceptualizing your company is a business plan. Doing the market research, identifying a market advantage and target audience to create a compelling market deliverable can help you first, figure out if it is worth pursuing and if it is, a business plan can help you fine tune the details.
It’s better to realize you don’t have the rice now so you can either tweak your current recipe or find a completely new one.
Having moved many times in the past couple of years, I’ve had many landlords. Let’s start with the bad: I was living in a very nice apartment building. All brick, high ceilings, a loft area, wood floors… at first glance it was a gem. After living there for a couple of weeks, it became very similar to The Money Pit: nice on the outside, but broken at the core.
Come to find out, the appliances were the cheapest you could buy. Therefore, they would constantly break. Uncontrollable flames shooting from the broiler; 100-year-old water pooling in the loft from a leak in the roof, which then began dripping in the shower below; mice; and paper-thin walls. All of these concerns were met with, “Yeah, we’ll see what we can do. I can have someone fix it in a couple of days.” No shower or dishwasher and a mice infestation and it’s going to take a couple of days?
Thankfully, when the lease ended the experience with the new landlord was quite the opposite. Everything was taken care of quickly and thoroughly. For example, the sink head was slightly leaking. Not a major issue by any means but the next day the maintenance guy completely replaced the fixture. When I asked him why, he responded, “it was old and I thought you could use a nicer one.” It would have taken weeks, if ever, to get a leaking facet fixed at my other apartment.
What really impressed me was when I had to re-set the breakers because I knocked out the power. Not only did the maintenance guy guide me through the process (I’d never done it before) of resetting the breakers, he stopped by that night just to make sure everything was OK and answer any additional questions I might have. It was his day off.
Why such a difference in culture? When I asked the maintenance guy why he puts in the extra effort, he said, “I live here too. The reason I replaced your facet was because I would want it replaced if it were in my apartment.” Eureka! My terrible landlord lived about half an hour away–not in a unit. She was so geographically removed from her work, why would she care if water was pooling in my ceiling and I couldn’t take a shower?
Next time you develop a new product, launch a website, answer a customer’s complaint, start a new ad campaign, or whatever, don’t look at it from your perspective. Quite honestly, your customer or client don’t care. Put yourself in their shoes and see if they would like your new website or new ad campaign. Gaining a little perspective can go a long way in developing a positive customer experience.
A couple of years ago, I had a chance to visit the “City of Light,” where ornate masks hung in nearly every shop window and pigeons swarmed seas of tourists. I also had the opportunity to enjoy the incredible artistry in St. Mark’s Basilica. Inspiring generations of luminaries, such as Ernest Hemmingway and countless artists, Venice is also known as the “Sinking City.” Though the New York Times described Venice as “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man,” the city is in slowly descending into the waters it was built upon.
Venice has been the home of some of the greatest painters and thinkers of all time. It is through their collective efforts that Venice is the wonder that it is today. Unfortunately, this monument to the human imagination and spirit will slip into the sea.
As business leaders, we strive to create brands that embody the tireless efforts and talents of all those involved in its creation. Unfortunately, Venice’s ultimate demise illustrates the instability and unsustainable structure from which it was built upon. As entrepreneurs constructing new companies, it’s incredible important to build a solid foundation that can support future success. Looking to the long-term sustainability of your company, are you prepared to face the weight of success and challenges of time?
If you haven’t watched Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, it might be worth your while. It’s a playful title, much like a biography of Bernie Madoff might be, The Smartest Investor in the Room. As I watched the film, I thought, if Enron’s leadership would have simply asked themselves, “What would I want if I were a stakeholder,” they might still be alive or not behind bars.
It’s a simple question that doesn’t get asked often enough. After you’ve done your homework and you’re ready to launch your new product or ad campaign, put yourself in your customer or users’ shoes and ask: “What would I want to see when I go to a news site?” Or, “What advertisement would I click on?” It’s a simple question that most people ignore or cannot answer.
When I go to a news site, do I want to run into a ad splash page? Unless it is extremely relevant and interesting, the answer is no. Why have it then? Ah, space and eyeballs. But if I had a choice between being annoyed by a splash page or not, guess which one I’d choose?
Even for local advertisers, when you launch your TV commercial, would cheap, amateur graphics and a $2 suit make you want to buy a car, or life insurance or paint? Probably not. Though there are more factors than just one commercial in the buying decision process, unprofessional, lazy advertisements don’t necessarily work in your favor.
Consider people that do ask that question. Great inventors are constantly thinking about problems and ways of solving them. For example, Chris Pegula noticed there were not any stylish diaper bags available for dads. That hole in the market sparked the idea for DiaperDude–a lifestyle brand for stylish dads. DiaperDude has an assortment of diaper bags for fathers–ranging in prints and sizes.
By putting yourself into your customer’s shoes, you can figure out what is a turn-off or is interesting and attractive. Next time you launch a new ad campaign, would you want someone getting in the way with a splash ad? Or, would you want someone yelling at you on TV to buy a used car? Chances are the answer is, no. Ask yourself the simple question, “What would I want if I were… ?”
Recently, I tossed an accordion binder and vowed never to use them again. Now, I use file folders in a cabinet to store my papers. Though I paid around $8.99 for the large accordion binder, I got gypped. It’s not because the tab holding it together broke, it’s because had the manufacturer added ¼” of plastic to the fastener, I wouldn’t be using a file cabinet.
Furthermore, had the manufacturer tested their product, they would know it cannot withstand the pressure of the contents inside it. If they tried it out, they would understand, ¼” more plastic on the fastener would save it from breaking. I would have paid a dollar extra for a fastener that would withstand all of my files.
Testing your product before it goes to market is a given. Had they invested the ¼” plastic, they would have a return customer and potentially new referrals. Because they couldn’t invest those couple additional cents into their product, they’ve lost more than several dollars.
It goes to show, investing that ¼” plastic into your product to make it from broken to functional is the difference between cents and dollars.
In one of my college art history classes, the professor lectured the class on Middle Ages art and stopped on The Garden of Earthly Delights, by the inventor of surrealism, Hieronymus Bosch.
The professor said he used to keep a print of the incredibly detailed, large painting in his house, but eventually had to remove it and gifted it to a student. He cited insanity as the reason to take it down. Bosch was so detailed in his work that every time you look at the painting, there is another half bird half human character you’ve never seen before. Something interesting pops out every time you take another look at The Garden of Earthly Delights.
Just as an onlooker can find new gems in Bosch’s masterpiece, so too can marketers and brand managers find new ideas within personal and professional networks.
Take brand naming for example. Even the most uncreative people you know can spark brilliant thinking. Send your criteria and some starter thoughts / names to friends, family and colleagues. You never know who will send you that one “it” idea or the one that sparks the “it” idea.
Internally, when ideating, bring a cross section of the company in your brainstorming session. That means account executives, creatives (upper and lower level) and any one else available. And ensure they’re in a comfortable environment. Nothing is more counter-productive than intimidating egoism and elitist attitudes. Bring in some props, role play, do whatever you have to do develop a creative environment.
The most incredible ideas come from the most unexpected places. Just as every viewing of Garden of Earthly Delights shows another gem, so too can friends, family and colleagues give you brilliant ideas.
