Whether you’re an emerging entrepreneur with a small management team or a corporate leader with a much larger staff, you know that the unique talents of your team make up the overall effectiveness of your company. Each person has a talent that makes your company move forward.
You, as the entrepreneur, have to give direction to your teams’ talents. And you, as a team member have to work towards that entrepreneurial vision. In many ways, a team dynamic in the office parallels that on the performers stage.
While I’m not a huge fan of choreography, this video is quite fascinating and illustrates the team dynamic:
When Facebook opened its doors to the non-.edu audience, the site grew exponentially. They refined and refined to make a great social media space, then opened its doors to the rest of the world. Essentially, it went out of beta.
Google does this all the time. It puts limits on accessibility (think invitation, developer preview only) to refine the product — makes it more stable, enhance its features, etc — then launches it to the world. From there, it grows exponentially. Both Facebook and Google exemplify how limiting access during the fine tuning stages can make for a better product when it is unveiled to the broader audience.
It’s interesting then, why Pandora recently created a 40-hour listening limit per month. Now that they’ve had years to refine and grow their product and audience, the online music streaming service is turning back the clock. If anything, they are penalizing their strongest advocates.
You’d imagine Pandora would try to make their product more accessible — similar to the Google / Facebook strategy. Though the move will not completely stunt the online music streaming service’s growth, it does discourage advocates from using the player.
You never know who you’re going to work alongside in say 15 years. Consider this picture of Ronald Regan in 1988 shaking hands with the pre-pubescent Vladimir Putin. Who are you going to cross paths with now that will rise through the ranks to join you someday on the same level:
If you’re an established industry leader, investing in young talent is key to injecting new life and ideas into your company. Even more important is finding the right talent to begin with. The strategy is to invest in young talent with drive, motivation. This signals potential to grow and flourish within your company.
The secondary attribute your should look for is the right personality. If you do not mesh on your first interview, you might not want to hire them though they are talented and driven. You are as efficient and effective as your ability to communicate and share your ideas. Gut feelings are powerful and while you should not always rely on them, it’s not wise to ignore them.
Details make everything seem a bit more real. For instance, it’s much more interesting to say “the woman wore a deep red coat with a lace collar that looked like a delicate hands choking her neck,” than to say, “the woman wore a red coat.” You can imagine the red coat with the lace, can’t you?
The video below illustrates my point about detail. Look at the camera and the way the film is shot:
Now think about the same video with a steady camera that you typically find in movies. It wouldn’t be the same, would it? Shaking the camera brings you closer to the action — it makes it more real, tangible and chilling.
Now think about how you can add detail to your business. Is it describing the pecan sauce in the description of your menu item (think high-end restaurants) or mailing your client a thank you card or even something as simple as saying good job to your employees. You’d be surprised what a little more attention to detail can get you.
One of Mac’s most famous pioneers, Guy Kawasaki (behind Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak) and Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer go head-to-head in this video:
The point Steve makes about Microsoft innovating on many different fronts is interesting. While Microsoft is developing MP3 players, mobile and desktop OS, gaming systems, browsers and search engines, the question becomes, are they losing focus? Are they concentrating on too many areas and diluting their efforts?
The company faces even more competition from Google (beyond browsers and search engines) with their new Chrome OS. So while Ballmer says he wants to innovate on many different fronts, should they be instead re-tooling their strategy? One that brings more focus to their efforts?
This is a similar situation many entrepreneurs face as they begin their startup. There are so many things that could be done that you could lose sight of what needs to be done.
Create a list of your goals, then figure out how to get from A to B. This will help you develop your priorities. Next, keep to this list — try not to stray too far from your key priorities. After a while you should begin to make progress towards your goals. This strategy will help eliminate unimportant tasks from your daily schedule — allowing for more “me time.”
Italian doctors may have found a surprisingly simple cure for MS. Italian doctors have discovered by simply opening the bloodflow to the brain, 73% of patients had no symptoms of MS after two years. Incredible that such a simple solution could have such an incredible impact.
The procedure that could prevent the over 2.5 million people suffering from MS, might shed some light on how emerging and established industry leaders can make their businesses more effecient. Often times, managers have a narrow view of the entire operation. For instance, let’s say you oversee a team of managers, who then oversee entry level employees. You rely on those managers to give you a realistic picture of what’s happening on the ground floor.
One of your managers appears to be productive, but in reality, they push the people they oversee to work harder so the manager doesn’t have to work as hard. As their superior, you might not see this — as long as they appear productive, you think everything is going swimmingly.
Of course, appearances can be deceiving. Just as the blocked bloodflow in MS patients, you might not at first see the problem. It might be helpful to have an annual internal review, whereby everyone is graded anonymously. This approach will empower those under the unproductive manager to speak up — give you the real scoop. This will help you identify where you have a block in your business. From that point, you can handle the situation accordingly. It is such a simple approach to making a productive, more efficient workforce.
Coca Cola and Pepsi are the go-to sodas for the majority of people; it’s one or the other. That idea really upsets John Nese, the proprietor of Galcos Soda. He features hundreds of varieties of soda in his store. Everything from Romanian Rose to Q. Cumber soda. Though he might be a little nuts, he typifies an entrepreneur that owns a niche. No where in the country could you find a selection similar to that in Galcos Soda.
Though there is not a mainstream demand for such an array of soda, John has develop a unique product in the market. He illustrates how to own your niche by:
Knowing your market — Who knows the only soda in the dictionary? John does and it’s Moxie.
Offering a unique product — Galcos Soda is the only store to sell Romanian Rose soda.
Staying passionate — John is constantly looking for the next, fantastic “micro-soda.” It is a life-long pursuit.
The Galcos Soda market will not explode into a national chain. There simply is not the demand to support it. However, for those few soda enthusiasts like John, Galcos Soda is an indispensable necessity — a mecca of sorts. How can you create a mecca or an indispensable product?
By the end of 2009, book sales are expected to decline around 6.8% for adult hardcovers and 3.0%, according to the PW/IPR Book Sales Index, a new report from Publishers Weekly and the Institute for Publishing Research. With the successful launch of the Kindle and Sony’s e-reader, book publishing could face some tough times ahead. Though many people love curling up to read a paperback (myself included), many of the same people probably said they couldn’t imagine waking up without the morning newspaper. Give it another decade and e-readers will start really encroaching on the book publishing market.
Today I stumbled across a new project from Olympia Le-Tan. She had stitched famous book titles on canvas. Many of the classics are covered… Moby Dick, Catcher in the Rye, Nineteen Eighty Four, For Whom the Bell Tolls. With her book jackets, Olympia illustrates how to add value to a struggling (or soon-to-be) market. Though only a fraction of book readers would even consider the handmade jackets (if they were sold as such), they add a unique element to a library. It 1) appeals to a niche market (particularly underground hipsters) and 2) it’s in limited supply. Le-Tan’s spin on book covers illustrates how a creative touch and niche appeal is a recipe for value.
Several days ago, Google decided to strip-down it’s already stripped-down homepage. In a word, they’re oversimplifying. Instead of having the few links at the top of the search page, Google delivers the most bare-boned version yet — with only the logo and search bar. What doesn’t make any sense is if you scroll over the page, the Google homepage we’ve grown to love appears. So what’s the point of having such a bare-bones page when it can go away so easily?
Google is known for delivering simple, easy-to-use products — from search to Gmail to Docs — but the latest move to simplify the homepage goes a bit overboard. There is a point where you can oversimplify and unravel the brilliance of fantastic products like Google Search. After you’ve simplified your product, ensure it’s still functional. If it fails the functionality test, well… back up a couple of steps and fix it.
Christopher Walken has a natural, dry sense of humor. The video below of Christopher reading Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face” lyrics captures this perfectly:
What makes this video hilarious is how completely out of context the lyrics are being recited. Taking something, whether it’s lyrics or products out of context can lead to new ideas and creativity. Think about how Arm & Hammer opened another profitable revenue stream by marketing baking soda as a refrigerator deodorizer. Previously, baking soda was reserved for… baking, or at least until a brilliant thinker at A & H took it out of context.
Taking a different approach — whether it’s having a dry character like Christopher Walken recite sexy pop song lyrics or putting baking soda into the fridge — often leads to brilliant work. By taking products and / or services out of context, you eliminate the expected and boring and inject some multi-dimensional thinking.
