Common sense, not so common.
Sometimes academic research evolves to support what common sense has told us for years. A standard phrase in the marketing lexicon is "look at it from the customers perspective" an obvious and logical strategy, not often used for a range of reasons, largely...
Fail to succeed.
It is often said, in one way or another, that the key to success is a willingness to fail, because only by taking risks, not accepting the common wisdom or status quo can you be sufficiently different to be have the chance tosucceed. J.K.Rowling is possibly the most...
Marketing punishment
For fifty years, good marketing meant efficient use of advertising funds, driving distribution, segmenting markets, usually on socio-economic status and usage patterns, development of brand awareness and purchase intention, a flow of range extensions, and staying out...
Where do we find the time?
From time to time we stumble across something that offers a "Eureka moment" an opportunity for insight that clears the haze, explains something in a way that makes such obvious sense, we wonder why it took so long. Clay Shirky's notion of "Cognitive surplus" is such a...
Unders & Overs of a great site.
One of the huge advantages of the web is that the small can look big, and professional, and able to tackle any challenge, and most important, confident of success. In order to achieve this on your site, you need to spend a little, perhaps a little more than you would...
Reward, actual and desired.
I often see businesses rewarding one behavior, whilst seeking an entirely different one. A Managing Director I worked for many years ago used to bang on about the long term the strategy, and values of the organisation, whilst beating (metaphorically) the daylights out...
Question and learn.
In the audience at a seminar last week, I witnessed an interaction that probably takes place often, in a wide range of circumstances. An audience member, when invited to ask a question, instead made a statement that was at odds with the point of view of the presenter,...
Womens day brainsnap.
National Womens day on Monday saw the leader of the opposition make an extraordinary promise. Under a Coalition government, he is proposing to tax the big end of town a bit extra (presumably because he thinks they can afford it) in order to create a 6 month maternity...
How do you know what an employee knows?
Knowledge workers, and these days that is most of us, create value for their employers by leveraging their knowledge, but defining the ownership of that knowledge, and the flow of benefits from that knowledge, is a huge challenge, and becoming larger. The recent court...
“See” the connections
The emerging generation of E-readers, Amazons Kindle, Barnes & Nobles Nook, and now the Ipad are as disruptive a technology as the invention of the printing press by Johannes Guttenberg in the early 1400's. Guttenberg's invention of the printing press was in...