Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

It’s Spring time in the Southwest.  Both hellacious thunderstorms and beautiful sun filled days.  I had a break in travel and spent the week in Dallas.

 

Working on reports and proposals on everything from marketing initiatives to presentation skills reports as well as a huge inventory of video projects has filled the week.  I love it when things are busy.  We also added new teaching and presentation projects for May and June.

 

This week our youngest son, Colin, celebrated his 21^st birthday while at the University of Arkansas.  That will make you feel old faster than a cold morning.

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

I know how hard it is to keep up with what’s going on in the business world.  We actually spend hours a week to be on the cutting edge of new ideas, always looking for ways to leverage knowledge for our clients.  To help you along this week, here are a few things that you may have missed:

 

• The car industry had some interesting news.  For the first time in HISTORY, Toyota outsold auto giant GM to become the worlds largest auto maker.  Ford only lost $.15 per share while the Street had predicted a loss of $.60.  Whew, nothing like having success measured in how much you loose.
• You probably notices that the Dow burst through the 13,000 mark this week.  The bull’s are pushing the success, but it’s not all bluster.  Companies are making money, increasing market share and innovating at a staggering rate.  Everyone from PepsiCo to Amazon are showing double digit growth. 
• How can I go a week without mentioning Apple?  They announced first quarter results and hold your horses:

 

• 88% profit growth
• Based mostly on COMPUTER sales, thus increasing their overall market penetration to the highest level in history.
• Profit rose to $770 million from $410 million a year ago in the comparable quarter.
• They sold 1.5 million Mac’s – an Apple record.
• This is more than 3 times the industry growth rate
• This growth came in the same quarter that MicroSoft released their long awaited Vista operating system.
• They have $12.6 billion in the bank
• And all of this happened AHEAD of the iPhone release.

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOIVES:  The Invisible looks like the 6^th Sense for teens, but something about it appeals to me.

 

 NetFlix Fans:  Night at the Museum  is out.  I saw this on a flight and believe it or not, it was pretty good.

 

TV:  I like TV.  I’m not one of those who when asked, always answers; “I don’t really watch TV.”  That always makes me wonder, who besides me is watching TV.  It seems to be a pretty popular entertainment medium.  Well, this Tuesday, we had horrible thunderstorms pass through and the TV storm reporting cut the last 12 minutes of my favorite show, House MD.  After my temper tantrum at the weather people, I searched the internet to find out what the hell happened and though I was unsuccessful, I found lots of House stuff.  So, for you fans, enjoy the following:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bh7vnIVPv4

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot65AOXNRao

 

BOOKS:  The Making of Star Wars  is a 313 page coffee table book that gives rich detail into the making of one of the most popular movies of all time.  Yep, Christopher Walken was the first choice for Han Solo.

 

Try After Dark by Japanese author Haruki Murakami.  The book tracks a seven hour late night drift through Tokyo.  Creepy and reads like a movie.

 

 

MUSIC:  I just finished watching a DVD of a Jack Johnson concert as part of some research I am doing into updating work on the creative process.  I love his music and thought I would share this live cut of Upside Down.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOMtkS0quCc&mode=related&search=

 

WEB SITES:  When bored with what ever is on the tube I often visit:

 

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage       Interesting news site.

 

 

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Weird stuff I have collected this week:

 

• Surprise:  90% of all lawsuits are filed in the United States.
• Hasbro Toys have turned a $.3 loss a year ago into a $.19 gain on the strength of Peter Parker.  Their Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman stuff is really selling.
• More Wall Street HUH? 

 

• AT&T earnings rose 22% and shares lost 1%.
• Northrup Gruman and Lockheed Martin earnings rose 8% and 19% respectively and shares lost 3% and 2%, respectively.
• Whirlpool, the Nations largest appliance maker saw earnings fall from $1.70 a year ago to $1.46 and the stock jumped 13%.

 

• Several companies, communities and organizations replaced the Easter Bunny with the “Spring Bunny” to avoid offending non-Christians.  Geez, I’m not sure about my Bible knowledge, but I’m pretty sure that Jesus and a bunny who miraculously lays eggs is not found any where in the New Testament.

           

There are words of wisdom

All around

But

No one seems to listen.

Jack Johnson

 

Drop me a note with your comments at creativeventures@nova1.com.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

 

 

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

This week finds me in Seattle, WA where the spring time is usually the really rainy season, but good weather has followed Laura and me to the Pacific Northwest and we have had sunshine every day.

 

I finished a big workshop on our Elite Client Cycle and a program on Core Skill Sets (thinking and communication).  Both were really successful with a high level of engagement from the participants.  When you marry cutting edge info with dynamic presentation methods, you engage the senses at the highest levels. 

 

It was great to have a long question and answer session after the program.

 

Laura and I are spending a couple of extra days in Seattle before coming home.

 

As with all of America, I was stunned and deeply saddened by the incident at Virginia Tech.  Like most parents with children away at school, I know the feeling of always being concerned for their safety.  I called Colin immediately after I heard, just to hear his voice.  The actions of one mad man do not speak to who we are as a people and while the media circus milks this horrific lose for everything its worth, at the end of the day it’s about the deepest of losses.  My prayers go out to all who have lost a loved one in a tragic and senseless act of violence.

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

My travels put me in contact with a number of different businesses where I am constantly studying the impact of customer service, of the relationships created by service providers and I am both amazed and surprised all the time.  Here are a couple of examples of how service is viewed and what you can learn from just paying attention:

 

·        I ordered a club sandwich from room service at a major hotel chain and when the waiter knocked on my door he had a steak, baked potato and a salad.  I said, “Sorry, that’s not my dinner.”  His response was – “Well then whose is it?”  Sorry, I told him, I have no idea, but I know it’s not mine.  He looked at me for a moment, asked if I was alone in the room.  I told him, yep, to the best of knowledge.  He puzzled on the situation and asked me, “What am I supposed to do with this?”  He was dead serious.  I figured I would help him out by calling room service from my room and tell them what happened and allow the waiter to talk to the room service people.  They apparently worked it out and a while later I my sandwich arrived and the steak dinner disappeared down the hallway.  The whole exchange is now a hilarious story, but the poor waiter’s training had been so woeful that he had no idea what to do when put in a situation of confusion.  It shows that there are a number of customer points of contact and each should be considered important.

 

·        I was patiently waiting, along with about 20 other customers, for a merchant to open their doors at the scheduled 10:00 AM.  With all these customers standing around, I looked in the window and saw the staff just standing around.  I thought, with all these potential customers ready to spend money, why wouldn’t they just open the doors a few minutes early?  A couple of the waiting customers were shaking their heads and looking at their watches.  The merchant opened the doors at 10:05 AM.  I decided to ask the manager if it occurred to him to open a few minutes earlier to let his customers in.  He said; “we open at 10.”  Amazing.  10:00 AM sure is official.  I would have thought that a few minutes early for 20 customers might have entered his mind, but I was certainly told, in no uncertain terms, that 10:00 AM is etched in granite.

 

These are not unusual, in fact, they are probably more the norm than not.

 

Separate and differentiate yourself by how you treat your customers and you will find a huge niche of potential just waiting for you!

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOIVES:  Hot Fuzz looks really fun and since we have an evening free, Laura and I just might walk over the Pikes Market and see this one.

 

 NetFlix Fans:  The Last King of Scotland  won Forest Whitaker the Oscar and should be a great film to watch at home.

 

TV:  When you are on the road you watch weird stuff.  I just saw Survivorman on The Discovery Network.  It has a survival expert who they leave in the middle of a snowy forest or the desert and see if he can make it on his own.  I could not turn it off as it captured my imagination.

 

BOOKS:  Try The Wal-Mart Effect  by Charles Fishman.  Though I am not a huge fan of these guys, the impact of their ideas has changed retailing.

 

Try Then We Come To An End by Joshua Ferris.  A new book about the burst of the dot.com bubble and the impact on the advertising industry.  Kind of like Office Space in book form.

 

 

MUSIC:  I am a huge Bruce Cockburn fan.  Bruce is a Canadian singer/songwriter with a huge book of CD’s.  I play a number of his songs and love his lyrics and guitar phrasing.  This is a video of a great tune.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyUi0P0FEuk&mode=related&search=

 

 

WEB SITES:  When bored with what ever is on the tube I often visit:

 

www.stupidvideos.com      Dumb entertainment.

 

 

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

You all have probably heard of Sir James Dyson.  He’s the guy who invented the best selling vacuum cleaner that bears his name.  He is really an interesting guy.  He is a great inventor with an iron will to get it right.  Imagine 5,126 tries to get it right.  That’s the number of working models it took to get his world famous bag-less vacuum to suck dirt better than anything before.

 

He embraces failure.  It is as natural to his creative process as breathing is to his biological ones.  It takes a unique perspective to thrive on failure as part of the success formula.  Most sprint away from it, fearing its impact on their careers, but to Tyson failure is part of his solutions.  

 

Try reading www.fastcompany.com/keyword/115dyson

           

Every generation

Throws a hero

Up the pop charts.

Paul Simon

 

Drop me a note with your comments at creativeventures@nova1.com.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

 

 

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

What a wild week.  Flew to San Antonio on Tuesday night, did a large presentation on Wednesday morning, jumped a quick afternoon flight back to Dallas only to run to make my flight to San Diego where I arrived in time for dinner.  Breakfast in San Antonio, lunch in Dallas and dinner in La Jolla – WOW.  I am finishing up a two day teaching program on presentation skills and get to come home on Saturday, BUT only for two days when I will leave for Seattle.  I am taking my lovely bride, Laura with me and we will take a few days of R&R.

 

Our video projects are really picking up steam as I position Rich Media as a primary strategic platform with many of our clients.  Image the power of a 3-5 minute video as opposed to the classic print material that would be thrown away!  It changes the entire communication culture of a company!

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

• Get ready for the summer of high gas prices, because in case you didn’t notice it arrived in the spring.  The average has hit $2.80 a gallon up $.12 from a year ago and, hold your horses, it ain’t done yet.

 

ExxonMobil raked in earnings of $39.5 billion, the largest profit in US                    history in 2006!  WOW.

 

• Do you know who the world’s biggest food and drink company is?  Well, it’s Nestle and they just made a $5.5 billion big for Gerber’s Baby Food.  This will give Nestle the largest share of the global baby food market.  Not bad for a company I associate with chocolate.

 

• If you can fight through the G-7 controversy around President Paul Wolfowitz, you will find some really good thinking going on.  As the world economic powers get their big brains together, they are trying to find ways to give emerging economies a greater voice in their operations.  By getting ahead of the economic potential of a country they can better integrate the countries growth in a global economy.  Not bad, for a group that gets kicked around every time they get together.

 

 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOIVES:  Disturbia is getting great reviews, but I have trouble “rushing out to see” a kind of horror movie.  No thanks.

 

 NetFlix Fans:  16 Blocks  is a really interesting little movie with great performances by Bruce Willis and Mos Deaf (try to bear through the voice he chooses to use).  Just saw it again in the hotel and it was as good as the first time.

 

TV:  Travel makes me miss most of my favorite shows especially when I am on the West Coast.  So, my lovely wife Laura set the TiVo  and when I FINALLY get home, I will be taking a look at Lost, House MD, and Boston Legal.  I have now whittled down my regular viewing to those three shows with Heroes’ tossed in when it returns to TV.

 

BOOKS:  Try A Short History of Nearly Everything  by Bill Bryson.  Simple yet wonderful, filled with things you should know.

 

Try The Silent Assassin by Lori Andrews.  I have not read it yet, but I have seen three people on planes reading it.  Normally a good sign!

 

 

MUSIC:  I want to push Martin Sexton this week.  I love his music and thought you might enjoy a really different sound, so check out this toe tapping number (Laura’s current favorite).  The song is called Diner.

 

This is clip is from Scrubs and it shows you how infectious the song can be!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_66FSnIUc3Q

 

 

 

WEB SITES:  When bored with what ever is on the tube I often visit:

 

www.netfavorite.com      Think about joining this site.  Gives you an exchange of ideas and opinions on lots of books, movies and TV.

 

 

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

OK, I know there is some weird stuff on TV and that the late night cartoon cult favorite, Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network has some really odd versions of the traditional cartoon, I never in my wildest dreams thought that entertainment executives would sit around a room and green light this:

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie For Theaters.

 

This movie features fast food crime fighting characters, Meatwad, Frylock and Master Shake.  I kid you not!

 

Check out this review:

 

http://www.eonline.com/movies/e_reviews/index.jsp?movieuuid=2a5b1edf-3331-439f-a1ac-e77caba204c7

 

I understand the appeal of the “cult” mentality when it comes to entertainment.  Some of my favorite movies are often described as “cult classics” (Office Space, Snatch, Super Troopers), but there has to be some business sense that prevails when looking at ANY project.  But with the power of the internet and blogging, I am never surprised by the success of anything!

           

A soldier standing under fire

Any change

Comes as a relief.

Ben Harper

 

Drop me a note with your comments at creativeventures@nova1.com.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

 

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

Coming to you from Atlanta, GA neighbor to Augusta where the golfing world is now fixated.  It is cold and windy, so watch the scores sore at Amen Corner.

 

I was reporting on our 4^th Narrative Arc project since December.  With this client we conducted interviews with their top sales force to discover the shared behaviors that were connected to their success.  It was a great meeting, sharing the discoveries and having an open discussion with the leadership team.  The results were so impactful that we may expand the scope of the project within the next few months.

 

Next week I am off to continue my work on an organizations transformational process and then on to San Diego to conduct the second part of Our Communication Link educational series.

 

Things are hoping and the work is fascinating!

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

There is a constant search for market separation and differentiation that drives strategic thinking.  New ideas need to provide strength in a market that seems to blend together without being able to define what or who is better.  Ask yourself this simple question:  When a client is shopping for our product or service, and there are two competitors in the search, why would they choose us?  If you are asked, what makes you different, what makes you better, could you provide an answer?  Could you define your strengths in a competitive market where ever brand is blurred?

 

For some companies they find a competitive advantage in geography, product, distribution, sales, culture, their brand or their people.  Organizations that operate with a sense of clarity can define their unique nature in a heartbeat, while others struggle and often shake their heads in indecision.

 

At your next staff meeting ask; what makes us unique in our market?  Why, when compared to our key competition would someone choose us?

 

If the answers are slow in coming, take note, you have a challenge in front of you.  Work with your team to develop a defined statement, a short paragraph that anyone can use anytime to describe what separates you in the market:

 

“We provide the most efficient response to our clients needs.”  Not very specific.

 

“We have a rich history of success based on leading the market in solving our customer’s problems.”  Not bad.

 

“Technology does not fulfill the promise behind a brand.  People are our competitive advantage.”  Pretty good.

 

This is a healthy exercise and in a world where markets are increasingly competitive, it’s good to KNOW what makes you different from the other guys.

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOIVES:  Grindhouse is the new tongue and cheek slasher/zombie movie that is out.  Tarentino and Rodriguez put together homage to the old “B” movies of the 60’s and 70’s.  It kind of interests me, but not enough to rush out to see it.  NetFlix Fans:  Children of Men  is now out and it could well have been one of the best films of 2006 that no one knew about.  Clive Owen is one of my favorite actors.

 

TV:  This is a huge sports weekend and lucky for me the weather in Dallas has returned to winter with cold and windy conditions outside.  This gives me the great opportunity to watch The Masters and Davis Cup action!  Augusta must be the most beautiful place on the planet.  The 13^th hole has over 1000 Azaleas!  The US plays Spain in Davis Cup tennis in front of over 14,000 fans (the most to see a match in the US).  It is rowdy action for tennis!

 

BOOKS:  Try Profit for Life by James Bragdon.  He takes a look at how big companies make and sustain profits through a new model of economic stewardship.  Interesting.

 

Since I have been condemned to airplanes and hotels where in-depth reading is damn near impossible, I have been making up time on periodicals and very light fiction as well as watching some of the TV shows I have missed.  I am now on the fourth Dresden Files book by Jim Butcher and find them almost as entertaining as Repairman Jack books.

 

 

MUSIC:  Try any of these bands and you will not be disappointed!  The Coral, The Mavericks and The Old 97’s. 

Watch this guy play like a guitar god:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8oxlPoZNbU

 

 

 

WEB SITES:  When bored with what ever is on the tube I often visit:

 

www.chud.com      Keeps me up on what is happening in the movies.

 

 

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

I have never before mentioned a charity or cause that I support because I figure everyone has their own idea about giving back.  Last Sunday I had the opportunity to meet an extraordinary young woman named Tanya Pinto.  Tanya started a very small charitable organization that works with orphans in India (www.baaldan.com).  One day, as a successful advertising executive, she took stock of her life and decided that she could afford to take some time off and do something.  Sounds simple huh.  Well she took off for India and spent three months working with the organization Mother Teresa started.  She then decided that she could do more good by collecting funds in America and taking a couple trips a year to India, where she PERSONALLY buys everything from school supplies to underwear for the kids.  She does it in India where a dollar goes a long way.  In the world of mega non-profit charitable organizations it is often difficult to know where a donation goes.  Not with Tanya, a dollar in goes exactly where it should.  She is an exceptional person who is literally changing the world.  I just thought you ought to know.

           

Power of example

My mother said and I heard

One ounce of action

Is worth a ton of words

Martin Sexton

 

Drop me a note with your comments at creativeventures@nova1.com.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.