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

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

A week in town!  What a treat.  It has worked wonders for me in getting caught up as well as preparing for my last long road trip of the year.

 

2008 is rapidly filling up and the projects are exciting and challenging.  We have a new client for whom we will be designing an entire year of skill enhancing curriculum!  A great opportunity for us to gain full leverage of both our thinking and communication learning programs.

 

Our December newsletter is going out.  If you are not on our mailing list send me a note and I will make sure you get our stuff.

 

We have finished our 4^th quarter program updates to keep them all on the cutting edge.  We have added ideas, examples and new media.  We are committed to updating all of our programs every quarter.

 

Hope all is well as winter weather begins its creep into our world!

 

 

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

As most of you are aware, I am a student of simplicity.  I believe it to be the holy grail of thinking and planning.  To be a true practitioner of this art form you have to grasp the process that leads towards simple, powerful and elegant responses to various stimuli.

 

Philips, the Dutch conglomerate has recently launched a company wide strategic and marketing initiative called – Sense and Simplicity.  CEO Gerard Kleisterlee says; “putting people at the heart of our thinking and eliminating ANY unnecessary complexity will build value for both our family of customers and our stakeholders.”

 

Sounds good, but what does it really mean?  Well, Philips gets it and offers this explanation of their two word tag line:

 

• Sense = meaningful and exciting benefits of technology that improves peoples lives
• Simplicity = the “aha” aspect of making every aspect easy to experience.

 

They even formed a Sense and Simplicity Board of Directors:

 

• Sara Berman – A UK fashion designer
• Gary Chang – One of China’s most prominent architects
• Peggy Fritzsche –  Former head of the Radiology society of N. America who specializes in simplifying the patient experience
• John Maeda -  Perhaps the eminent leader in the field of simplification.  An MIT professor and author of the Laws of Simplicity.

 

Imagine an entire corporate culture based on the effort to simplify.  Keep an eye on Philips -  I will!

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     August Rush   is an incredible little movie with another great performance by Robin Williams.  It has wonderful music (the theme of the movie).

 

NetFlix Fans:  Waitress  is a great little movie.  I know it might be termed a “chick flick”, but what the hell, give it a shot, you’ll like it.  You will have time as TV is done for a while.

 

TV:    Go out and rent your favorite movies or buy that book you’ve been meaning to read as the Hollywood writers strike is starting to leave a wake of my favorite shows as it plows into another week.  Many shows will be placing their cast of characters on mothballs as without the writers, they have nothing to say.  Adding to my misery are the countless new reality TV shows that will be making their way to primetime.  What a nightmare!  No more House or Boston Legal, but you can bet there will be more rumba with the stars!

 

BOOKS:  The Riddle  by Andrew Rzaeghi , brings to the front of the business line up the creative process with an in-depth study of where ideas come from and how to get better ones.

 

 

MUSIC:  I am a huge Neil Young fan (my wife is growing accustom to him) and lately I have been playing a lot of his stuff.

 

The first video is a GREAT song ; When God Made Me and the second is a must see of a VERY young Neil Young on the Johnny Cash show singing; The Needle and the Damage Done.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxjgcfAv2OE

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0t0EW6z8a0

 

WEB SITES:  Take a visit to the blogosphere and check out . . . . . . . .

 

www.boingboing.com

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

A movie theater recently ran a movie marathon consisting of the 25 WORST movies of all time.  I love the South of Normal thinking on this one.  They used a quantitative metric instead of an aesthetic measurement to come up with their list.  The amount the movie cost to make and the domestic gross the movie made at theaters.  Now I could give you the bottom 10 or is that the top 10, I’m not sure??  But to see how many of you are reading this I will give you the 10^th, 7^th and 5^th worst movies of all time.  If you want the rest of the top 10, drop me a note:

 

• # 10 – Battlefield Earth:  Cost $73 million to make and made $21.5 million at the homeland box office.
• #  7 – The Postman:  Another Costner bomb which cost $80 million and made just $17 million.
• # 5 – Cleopatra:  Now this is a wonderful story.  The Elizabeth Taylor movie was budgeted at $2 million but it ballooned to $44 million and grossed just $26 million.  In today’s dollars, the movie lost $259 million!

 

 

I’ve seen the needle and the damage done

A little bit of it in everyone

Oh, oh the damage done

Neil Young

 

 

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

 

Monday was Laura’s birthday and we went to a “special occasion” restaurant to celebrate.  I studied everything about the experience, the atmosphere, the menu, the service, the food, everything, in an effort to discover the differentiation that allows a business to charge a premium and fill their book of business. 

 

Not a single detail was overlooked.  Their focus on the entire experience was flawless.  Imagine the effort taken to make an experience of this caliber for every diner, every night.  When the check came, I paid it with the highest level of satisfaction.  Effort returns value. 

 

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I hope you all found time to give a moment of thanks for the blessings in your life and had time to spend with those you love.

 

I have a wonderful break in travel for the next two weeks which will allow me to work on my “tomorrow ideas”. 

 

 

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

We are putting the finishing touches on one of our new programs that will be debuting in 2008; Getting Sticky – The hidden leverage of your brand.

 

Branding is one of the primary battlegrounds in the war of differentiation.  In the world where pricing drives primary purchasing decisions, everything becomes a commodity.  How can you put together a strategy that sends a consistent message in with a high level of continuity across your business platform? 

 

I don’t want to give too much of the program away, but here are a couple of tidbits:

 

• Most companies are good at pursuing relationships, but are limited in their efforts to nurture these relationships.  Part of branding is to make your name a part of the relationship.
• Do the simple but necessary things; add a blog to your website, develop a graphic newsletter that can be delivered in a variety of methods, electronic, print and audio.
• Have a “buzz’ strategy.  Do something that makes you a part of your customers conversations.  Sounds weird, but this is a STRATEGY.
• Study your second phase customer.  These are the people that regularly return to your service or product.  What makes them come back?

 

There’s a taste of Getting Sticky.  I can’t wait for you to see the entire, multimedia, interactive program, which will be offered in Presentation format, as a learning program to enhance skill sets and as a specific strategic platform that we can help you launch!

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     Hit Man   is another movie from a video game, which usually spells death, but I am intrigued by the previews and may make it a holiday theater trip.

 

NetFlix Fans:  Rescue Dawn  is another great Christian Bale performance.  Gut wrenching and inspiring at the same time.

 

TV:    Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Network continues to entertain me, even though the host has received some bad press for staying at a hotel or having a pre-assembled raft on a couple of episodes. 

 

BOOKS:  The 47^th Samurai  by Stephen Hunter , brings back one of my all time favorite characters, Bob Lee “the nailer” Swaggert.  This is a MUST READ for thriller fans!

 

 

MUSIC:  OK music fans, this is the start of my “cover song” series.  I am going to post the original version of the song or a version by the singer/songwriter and a cover version of the same song by another performer.  The first link is Colin Hay doing an acoustic version of his killer song, Overkill.  The second link is Lazlo Bane doing his version with a guest appearance by Colin Hay.  I love cover version of tunes!

 

 

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

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIb51_BdLnk

 

 

WEB SITES:  Looking for some video entertainment?  The next great director is already posting his or her work here.

 

www.videos.antville.org

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Let me introduce you to Cheryl Stearns.  Now Cheryl is about as South of Normal as Jimmy Buffett.  First, she is a skydiver, but not any kind of skydiver, she is the queen of skydiving.  Here are a few of her accomplishments:

·        She is 21 times the US Women’s skydiving style and accuracy champion.

·        She set the world record with 352 jumps in one 24 hour period.

·        During that time she set accuracy records by hitting a tiny target 188 times during the day and 84 times at night.

 

Now she is trying to set the world record by making a jump from 110,000 ft. Yes you read it right, 110,000 ft.!  She will ride a special balloon up to the stratosphere which will take her 2 ½ hours to reach and then she will jump out of said balloon, put her body at a 70 degree angle to the earth and hurtle towards terra firma on a 4 minute journey. 

 

Tell me that’s not a South of Normal journey!

 

Check out her website at www.cherylstearns.com 

 

 

It’s coming on Christmas

They’re cutting down trees

Everyone is singing songs of joy and peace

Joni Mitchell

 

 

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 somewhat frigid Wisconsin where the high today was 40 degrees.  I went from sunny and warm Orlando to the early signs of winter of Wisconsin in about a 12 hour period.

 

In Orlando I was honored to share our ideas on the incredible amount of leverage that lies undiscovered in your elite clients.  Imagine a simple but powerful strategy that taps into a pool of engaged and committed customers, customers already heavily involved with your product or service.  You might think that you already squeezed everything you can from this revenue base, but I believe you are leaving potential “on the table”.  Our Elite Client Cycle opens a new way of thinking, planning and executing.  Very exciting stuff!

 

In Milwaukee, I taught the third part of our communication module on Presentation Skills.  I believe communication and thinking skills form the foundation of all business success and we consistently see that clients that invest their training in these two areas see the largest and fastest return on their training dollar.

 

Next week is my favorite holiday of the year – Thanksgiving.  Every year I am more blessed with great friends, loving relationships and a true sense of happiness and purpose.  I don’t need a specific day to say thanks, but I believe that a focal point for counting our blessings can’t be a wrong idea!

 

 

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

If you remember, I recently highlighted the key aspects of transformational organizations (you can find this in the newsletter section of the web site).  One of the elements is that transformational organizations – PAY ATTENTION.  They notice things that lead to opportunity often obscured by an ill advised focus.  Here are a couple of things I recently noticed:

 

• Marvel Comics:  Since most of their client base is active on the internet they have become the first comic company to heavily invest in creating a presence on the internet.  They will provide an on-line achieve of high res, digital issues of more than 2500 titles to subscribers.  The cost is $10 a month or $60 a year.  They have seminal issues such as the debut of Spiderman and Wolverine.  You can turn pages by clicking your mouse to imitate your regular reading experience as well as being able to zoom to enlarge the image.  To protect the retailers, new issues will not be available until 6 months after release.  This is a great example of finding leverage in a market that many thought was saturated.

 

• Webisodes:  These are small videos, mostly user generated, that inhabit an ever increasing section of internet viewing.  A webisode is a scripted, episodic video that develops a very loyal audience.  They represent a tremendous pool of talent and viewers that traditional entertainment companies are hungry to tap.  To get an idea of what I’m talking about, click on this link for an episode of CHAD VADER – a webisode about Darth Vader’s brother Chad who is the daytime manager of a supermarket.  This form of entertainment didn’t even exist a short time ago and now, young film makers are charging into a new field to show their work and revenue will start to flow from a new source for companies like Viacom and the big networks: 

 

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wGR4-SeuJ0

 

Potential is all around you, take a few moments to pay attention.  If you don’t, your competition will.

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     Before The Devil Knows Your Dead   is a murder mystery that takes a ton of twists and turns.  Entertaining and exciting.

 

NetFlix Fans:  Amazing Grace is a beautiful and inspiring film.

 

TV:    The Biography network (also often on A&E) has a great series called Notorious.  It features a full hour of bio stuff on bad guys.  I just saw the one on Jesse James and it was fantastic!

 

BOOKS:  Think Better  by Tim Hurson, is an interesting study into the true process of thinking.  For those of you who have been through any of our core thinking educational programs you will recognize similar ideas.

 

 

MUSIC:  Many of you know the music of Nils Lofgren from his long time role in the E Street Band, but his solo career is spectacular.  He is a phenomenal guitarist I love his music.  Here is a great example, a song called “No Mercy”.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldt7Kq3nGX4

 

 

WEB SITES:  Interesting perspective on news stories.

 

www.earthtimes.org

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Just when you think the government could not figure out how to get MORE South of Normal, this TRUE gem of insight appeared:

 

The State Library & Achieves of Texas issued a report that whose purpose was to tell everyone that the State of Texas issues too many reports.  Of over 1600 annual reports this august body of thinkers discovered that 400 were redundant.  This report took 18 months to complete and was over 600 pages. 

 

The best news, it’s an on going report!

 

As Jimmy Buffett said; “the politics at home are to bizarre for me”.

 

 

May God’s blessings keep you always

May your wishes all come true

May you always do for others

And have others do for you

Bob Dylan

 

 

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

 

I had a great meeting in Denver and another project for 2008 was confirmed.  Last Friday I did a program that debuted a small piece of our new program on TRANSORMATION that will be one of our idea launches for 2008.  Here are the results:

 

Steve:

I have been aggregating data from the speakers committee for about a year now and you have set the bar higher than I had ever thought it would go. Your topic, presentation, and engagement of the group were exemplary. A perfect score of 5.0 has never been attained by anyone with more than 30 survey submissions in any of the following 5 feedback areas and you earned perfect feedback in 3 of the 5;    wow!

I have a great feeling about the impact this idea will have on our clients!

 

I am off to Orlando on Monday then on to Milwaukee on Thursday!  A big travel week with lots of impact activities!

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

“Please hold, your call is important to us.”  OH NO, this sentence could replace the one that stands at the entrance to Dante’s Hell – “abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”  I did a program on customer service to launch a new and powerful strategic platform for a client and during the creation process; I was again reminded of the critical nature that a time and capital focus on customer service needs from EVERYONE!

 

In today’s world we are being further removed from the human contact we, as a species crave, all in the name of supposed customer impact and speed.  Self check out at the supermarket, self serve anything, ATM machines, automated phone systems, you name it; they want to remove any human contact if possible.

 

You can’t have a discussion on customer service without a few stories:

 

• During a recent stop at a fast food restaurant the customer in front of me was studying the big menu sign with the passion of an SAT student.  The menu had been reduced to series of pictures with a number associated with each delicious calorie filled order.  He asked the young man at the register what came with a number one.  Without uttering a single word, he simply pointed at the sign.  Yep, that was determined to be an accepted service response.  No conversation what so ever.  No smile, no thanks, no nothing.
• I had a problem with a new electronic device I recently purchased (image that) and when I went back to the store to discuss my confusion, I was told by an employee that no one at the store knew anything about the product (even thought they were the exclusive seller of my device) and that I should “go home” and call the manufacturer.  Huh, go home.  Great service advice.

 

The list is endless.  The point is, if you want to impact your success faster than just about any thing, focus on your customer service.  Do something to make sure your Point of Contact is the nexus of your efforts.  It’s doesn’t take a lot to make an impact.  Start with small things and don’t remove your focus until you are convinced their actions form a positive pattern.

 

If your business depends on the flow of holiday spending, you had better start now.  In fact, no matter what your business, YOU BETTER START NOW!

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     No Country for Old Men   opens this weekend and will be a DON”T  MISS film.  Hard to watch and violent, it will  make a huge impact come Oscar time.

 

NetFlix Fans:  Ratatouille hit the shelves this week and reminds me that “cartoons”, better to be referred to as “animated features” are now mainstream films that everyone enjoys, not just kids.  Pixar’s impact has been HUGE.

 

TV:    HOUSE MD continues to be my “never miss” show and this season has been fantastic.  All my other shows from last year have slipped to my “if I remember to watch list”.  So I have been mostly focused on alternate networks, like the Food Network, ESPN, and The History Network and so on.

 

BOOKS:  Brother Odd by Dean Koontz is the third installment of the very interesting character Odd Thomas.  As you all know I read fiction on the road and non-fiction at home (I highlight and take notes on these and it takes focus not available to me on the road).  The first book Odd Thomas introduces this very interesting young man who can see damaged souls who have not crossed over due to something bad.  Sounds weird, but what would you expect from Koontz.

 

 

MUSIC:  The first video is of my favorite songs by Blues Traveler.  Just to hear the great harp playing is worth the watch.  The second video is Dylan doing one of my all time favorite songs – A Simple Twist of Fate.

 

 

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

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYybKGp1ycQ

 

 

WEB SITES:  Interesting perspective on news stories.

 

www.earthtimes.org

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Here is a little gastronomical news from South of Your Regular Thinking:

 

·        Best Quick Food Franchise’s:  Buy anything that makes sandwiches.  Last year Americans ate 45 Billion (yes, billion) sandwiches up a whopping 10% from the previous year and the trend shows no sign of slowing down.  The average person eats 200 sandwiches a year.  Want to specialize?  Start a kid’s peanut butter and jelly shop as most American kids will eat 1500 of these classic gems before they graduate from high school.

 

·        The Weird But Popular Marshmallow:  Just what the hell is this thing?  Some puffed up way to enjoy sugar.  Well, sales are up 9% in 2007 continuing a 10 year growth path.  Over $140 million dollars worth of these critical smore ingredients were sold in 2006!  They now come in exotic flavors like Chili, Lime, Lavender, Passion Fruit and the biggest selling new entrant – Strawberry.

 

Grab yourself a fluffer nutter sandwich in Boston and marry the world of both – a fluffer nutter is made up of marshmallow cream and peanut butter – MMMMMM.

 

 

She looked at him and he felt a spark

Tingle to his bones

Bob Dylan

 

 

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

 

 

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