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

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

The insanity of my March schedule arrived a little early as three major events all collide in the first week!  I thought I had a good jump on the projects, but like all good plans, things happen.  So, 16 hour days were the norm and just when I thought I had dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s, a new wave of issues hit me like the Bonzai Pipeline.

 

I start the week this Sunday and won’t return home until the following Sunday.

 

Despite the pressure of getting all of the projects ready to go, they remain stimulating, exciting and full of potential (I just like to bitch a little every now and then).

 

The March newsletter should be ready to go next week.  If you don’t get it and want it, send me a note and I will put you on the mailing list!

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

Just a little scatter shooting on things I found interesting:

 

• Wal-Mart – Remember when I wrote about the shift Wal-Mart made from their traditional low price model to try to appeal to some up-scale shoppers by offering some high priced fashion?  They took a big hit as same store sales sank.  They shifted back to what they do well; LOW PRICES and shoppers rewarded them.  The latest quarter showed profits back up.  Stick to what you know.
• The Winner Is . . .    Yep, the high def DVD war is over and standing in the winners’ corner is the Blue Ray format.  Gone is Toshiba’s HD DVD.  It was decided by both the film industry and, believe it or not, Wal-Mart.  Hollywood chose the Blue Ray format to release movies to the public and Wal-Mart decided not to carry HD DVD players. 
• The Coffee Wars -  Everyone knows that the luster on the Starbucks star has recently faded.  Their share price is down 50% in the last two years.  They reduced corporate staff by 200 and will actually close over 100 poor performing stores.  They made headlines closing their stores for 3 hours of training to get staff to bring the “buzz”  back with a new commitment to quality and service.  During the close down, Dunkin Donuts offered .99 coffees all day to lure caffeine addicts away and Seattle’s Best actually gave coffee away during the national training session (I like Peet’s Coffee).  Keep your eye on the barista’s battle.

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     The Oscar’s came and went and I rushed out on Saturday to see Atonement, so I would have seen all five Best Picture nominations and the Academy got it right with No Country for Old Men winning.  I HATED Atonement (British film makers again sucked 2+ hours of my life away from me).  The blockbuster season is sneaking up on us and I can’t wait.

 

NetFlix Fans:  Fracture– A great little physiological thriller with Sir Anthony Hopkins.

 

TV:    Check out HBO for the documentary THE GATES which chronicles the work of the artists Christo and his wife, Jenne-Claude and their fantastic work of art that stood in Central Park.  FANTASTIC!

 

BOOKS:  The Collectors  by David Baldacci is the second book in the Camel Club series.  A wonderful thriller with excellent character studies.

 

 

MUSIC:  Someone recently asked me about who I thought were underappreciated guitarists (WOW, there are a ton of them).  Here is one of my favorites, Monte Montgomery – WATCH THE ENTIRE VIDEO TO BE WOWED!

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmqLUWPE6K4

 

WEB SITES:  Another great social media site.

 

www.bigthink.com  

 

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Just a couple of things this week:

·        Video Games:  You may yell at your kid’s for spending too much time at their Playstation 3, but it is big business.  Electronic Art’s is the big hitter in this game and they just offered Take2Interactive (the makers of Grand Theft Auto) $2 billion for their little video company.  This shot Take2Interactive’s stock up 54% overnight.  It was a 60% premium over the closing price of their stock.  Damn, there’s big buck in that stuff!

·        Hungry?   The UN Food and Agricultural Organization is now promoting the nutritional benefit of insects as a human food.  They are high in protein and minerals.  In many parts of the world they are regular parts of a standard diet.  Don’t expect them to be on the menu at your local McDonalds soon but who knows.

 

 

“Any sufficiently advanced technology

Is indistinguishable from magic.”

Arthur C Clarke

 

 

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

 

Time away from the road ends this week as it’s time to hit travel mode again.

 

Believe it or not, I am actually right on schedule for all the projects currently on the table.  I actually had to double check everything just to be sure the feeling of being “OK” was real!

 

I just signed a really interesting new project for an existing client that will allow me to apply our incredibly successful “GOAL SETTING & ACCOMPLISHMENT” model to a new international division.  The downside is that it may require some international travel, which I HATE.

 

The famous HARVILL BOOK is back on the front burner and may become a reality sooner than even I thought.

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

Feeling overwhelmed?  Too much, too fast, too confusing?  You would have to have buried your head in tons of sand to think these descriptions only apply to you.  It is one of my favorite and most encountered excuses – “sorry, I didn’t get that done, I’m just too busy”.  REALLY?  Wow, I’ve never met someone so overextended.

 

OK, now that we have that LIE out of the way, let’s move on to some productive thinking.

 

If you are overwhelmed by your life (who isn’t these days),  the idea would be to take some personal accountability and get things in even the smallest semblance of order.  The biggest problem is where the hell do I start? 

 

There are a couple of great sources that I have recommended in the past and I will do so again, on the chance you forgot to bookmark and register with these incredible sites:

 

• www.43folders.com
• www.zenhabits.com

 

Now that you have their help, let me give you some core thinking and action ideas to begin that simplification process you here me preach about on EVERY project.  Remember simplification is about “starting simple”.

 

• Collect all things in ONE PLACE.  Have ONE place you write things down.
• Always choose to do high impact items first and when you are at the top of your energy cycle.  For me that means the morning.
• Eliminate.  You know that some of the things on your voluminous list don’t even really need to be done.  Perhaps they can be delegated.
• Organize neatly.  You would be surprised at how much more focused you can be with only the item you are working on in front of you.

 

Start small, but if you want some peace of mind – START!

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     Saw JUMPER last weekend.  I found it mildly entertaining.  Good SFX’s but the story was weak and the title character was unsympathetic.  Hell, I was rooting for the bad guy!

 

NetFlix Fans:  Absence of Malice– This is a thinking person’s movie.  Great performance by Paul Newman and Sally Field.  A wonderful little twisting storyline.

 

TV:    There is a great piece  on Starz about jazz great Herbie Hancock.  Check it out for insight into one of the most progressive music minds in the world today.

 

BOOKS:  The Big Switch  by Nicholas Carr gives an insight view of the impact of technology on the continued development of the world wide grid.

 

 

MUSIC:  I love this jazzy version of “Message in a Bottle” – the song originally recorded by the Police.  This is John Mayer’s cover.

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmYys-ZjNrg

 

WEB SITES:  A very cool site.

 

www.getrichslowly.org

 

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

A few things that fit nicely in this little weird corner:

·        McDonalds:  In Hacienda Heights, CA, they have designed a new McDonalds around the Chinese design concept of Feng Shui.  Yep, gone are the yellow and reds replaced by water features, plants, soothing music and furniture positioned to tap the energy of the space.  Why change a good thing (McDonalds has been showing great success lately).  Why not?  The time to experiment is always NOW.

·        Laser:  Here are some terms of measurement you don’t see everyday.  At the University of Michigan they just fired the most powerful laser in history.  It uses 300 terawatts of concentrated power shot at a 30 femtosecond burst in a 1.3 micron area.  That’s 20 Billion Trillion watts per square centimeter.  WOW.

·        Wheat:  The popularity of ethanol has changed the farming habits of the world.  Former wheat farmers are now growing tons of corn to meet potential alternate full needs.  Wheat has gone from $5.31 to $10.70 a bushel in less than a year.  Bread, pasta, and my favorite, cookies are all going up.  Everything is connected.

 

 

“I used to think of myself as a musician.  Now I think of myself

as a human being first.  Music is what I do, not who I am.”

Herbie Hancock

 

 

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 treat, another week of no travel.  This little reprieve from airports, taxi cabs and hotels was planned to allow me to plan design and construct a number of new client projects that would have been impossible while on the road.  I am often asked about my process concerning projects, so here it is:

 

• Research – Build the idea
• Storyboard – Create a rough visual journey connecting ideas
• Construction – Build a master deck of slides

 

From the master deck you can build a program, a strategic platform or an educational program.  Each master deck can be customized for a specific client need and added to in order to keep the information on the cutting edge.

 

I had a small wrench thrown into the works with regard to getting started working with my new business manager Chris Ryan.  We hope to pick up the pace in March.

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

You hear a lot about the “customer experience” and the attention it is or is not given by a company.  It is playing a big part in some of my recent projects as a couple of my clients have chosen this aspect of their company as a strategic goal for 2008. 

 

Think about it, shouldn’t the way a customer or client touches your company and the way you touch them be a key player in your planning?  You better answer YES.  We “assume” things are good here and ignore the importance of a mutually great interaction.

 

• Synovate (www.synovate.com) is a global research company interested in the customer experience and the loyalty it creates.  Loyalty is a big player and a key result of great customer experiences.  They surveyed over 7,100 customers of organizations famous for their customer experiences and compared their response against the company’s commitment and operational practices designed to sustain and improve the customer experience.  Not surprisingly they found those companies that work at the right things show HUGE economic return in the form of brand and people loyalty.
• Here are a couple of those “RIGHT THINGS”:
  • • Feedback:  These companies actually create opportunities to talk to their customers.  In fact, they focus on these purposeful interactions.  They survey, they talk to them during the interaction/sales process.  They follow up to interactions.  They create focus groups of customers.  This feedback provides critical information to their goal of creating meaningful interactions.
    • Feedback to Action:  Feedback only provides information.  Good companies then put the “pencil to paper” and create focused strategic action that USES the feedback info to get better.  They DO.
    • Perspective:  You have heard me preach about this time and time again – CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE.  You must be able to see things from the customer’s point of view.  This ability to remove your operational prejudice will give you invaluable insight and is a skill that takes a ton of practice.

 

In your planning and thinking time, it is a VERY GOOD idea to take a focused look at your customer interaction. 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     Laura and I were invited to our first movie as members of the USA Film Council; Penelope, a fairytale about a pig faced (yep, pig faced) girl who must look past her physical features to who she really is.  Sound familiar?  A tired plot line was made mildly entertaining by Christina Ricci and Reese Witherspoon. 

 

NetFlix Fans:  Deja Vu– This is a Tony Scott directed movie with Denzel Washington.  I recommend this because it is an exciting movie with a physics premise as its driving plot line.  I have been working on a program for a client that, believe it or not, has an Einstein-Rosen Bridge as its core idea (look it up).

 

TV:    Writers Strike is OVER!  Let’s start heating up those keyboards guys.  I need new HOUSE episodes.  The John From Cincinnati DVD series is scheduled to be out next month.  A new Boston Legal made its way to Tuesday night and despite the completely left wing politics of the show, it still entertains.

 

BOOKS:  How to Say it and Sell It  by Hershkowitz-Coore has some interesting sales information.  It talks about talks about not being so quick to prove a customer wrong, but instead, direct the process of what a customer wants to know.  When you build your process about trading information and knowledge you often remove barriers that are preventing the sales.

 

 

MUSIC:  I first heard this song on a HOUSE MD episode and fell in love with it.  This is Michael Penn who is Sean Penn’s brother.

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWGL3mPE114

 

WEB SITES:  My latest, favorite blog:

 

www.43folders.com

 

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Keeping with my client experience theme, here is one of my favorite ideas that put this idea beyond the standard interaction into the South of Normal commitment!

·        www.adrenalinastore.com  -  If you want to appeal to the adrenaline junkie, you better give a big experience.  The Adrenaline Store in Florida did just that.  They sell extreme sports equipment.  That’s the stuff for people who can not find enough of a rush out of their regular life, so they need to come close to killing themselves to feel alive (that’s an editorial comment by a 50 + year old ex-surfer).  They added a wave pool to their store so people can try out all the surfing stuff.  WHAT A FANTASTIC COMMITMENT to the customer experience!  It’s so South of Normal!

 

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”

Einstein

 

 

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

 

Thanks for the great response to the February newsletter!  I love the input.  I can always tell when the content I have chosen hits the mark by the number of emails I receive.  That’s two months in a row of great response.

 

This month is dedicated to working on a number of long term client projects and I was able to put a huge hunk of time into several strategic platforms.

 

Love not having to get on a plane!

 

Congratulations to the NY Giants for a defensive ass whipping of the invulnerable Patriots.

 

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

Time for a little scatter shooting.  Here are some interesting things:

 

• Microsoft Bids for Yahoo:  WOW, only +/- $55 billion for Microsoft to buy its way into the on-line ads and search markets.  Well Google sure as heck is not going to stand still for this power play.  They already have approached good old Uncle Sam and stated; “this will threaten the underlying principles of openness and innovation.”  So Google didn’t think anything about adding web based applications, for no charge, that would provide an alternative to Office programs.  Should be fun to watch!
• Whirlpool a Big Hit:  Did you know that Whirlpool is the largest appliance maker in the world?  Their 4^th Quarter profits busted the analyst’s expectations and shoved their sales up to $5.33 billion.  The Street says;
  “they blew away projections in a challenging market”.  What does Whirlpool do?  They have the most stringent quality control in the business, but more importantly spend more time and money training their sales staff than their competitors. 
• Kodak Back from the Dead:  Remember when everyone from Fuji to Cannon was burying good old Eastman Kodak?  Sure they were slow to respond to the digital revolution, but their adjusted strategy and strong quality of digital cameras have them back in the game.  Sales grew 4% and their digital sales jumped 15%.  Impact often is not at the beckon of investors, instead the space between cause and effect are often separated by time and space.  Kodak is a great example of needing some time and space to allow a definitive catch up strategy to show impact.

 

Pretty good stuff!

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     This little blog section is about to change as Laura and I joined the USA Film Festival where we will get to see movies before they are released.  Our first invitation came and next Wednesday we will get to see our first film.  So get ready for some hot movie opinions on movies I would probably never see as a regular theater patron.

 

NetFlix Fans:  To Kill a Mockingbird – Last week, at the Challenger Tennis Tournament, Darren Boyd (the GM of the club) and I were visiting about movies and he asked me to put together the top 20 movies someone should see.  A list like this is DANGEROUS as everyone has an opinion, but undaunted, Laura and I put our heads together and came up with the list.  Here is the first one.

 

TV:    If, for some reason, after reading my blog, you are not a House MD fan (Tuesday on Fox) you are missing the boat, BIG TIME.  The last three episodes were as good as TV gets.  The critical thinking process that is demonstrated each week is the best you will see and when wrapped around great character development, you have my favorite show.  Go on line and watch.  You will see!

 

BOOKS:  Monday Morning Choices  by David Cottrell talks about the life we build around our choices as well as the one’s we avoid.

 

 

MUSIC:  I was listening to my iPod on random and when this tune showed up it made me smile.

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2nQZPC2uTs

 

 

WEB SITES:  My latest, favorite blog:

 

http://www.zenhabits.net/

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Here are a couple of things that made me go, HUH?

·        www.holzundeisen.de  -  These guys make the “urban golf club”.  This specialized club is designed for the growing game of urban golf.  Where groups make up a golf course through some cityscape and create holes out of things like hitting fire hydrants or street lights.  This club can take the scraping of asphalt or cement.  Not sure how many windows get taken out by this game, but it’s nice for a company to fill a niche??????

·        www.thelanders.com -   Here is a web site for those job seekers looking for six figure jobs.  Yep, they specialize in the +$100K positions.  They post an unbelievable 35,000 jobs per month.  You pay a $30 per month fee to gain access to these golden egg jobs.  WOW, lots of companies paying big bucks to list on the site.  So if you are an ex-CEO hanging around looking for work, get that $30 bucks out!

 

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

 

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 week!  I hired Chris Ryan as the new General Manager for Creative Ventures.  Chris will handle all new business and keeping me in front of the right people.  He is the most connected person I have ever met and has a wicked forehand to boot!  You will be hearing more about Chris as we finalize so fantastic new plans for Creative Ventures.

 

This week I kicked off a new team designed project with a large client and hope to help their commitment to the idea of cooperative sales.

 

This week has been the Challenger Pro Tennis stop in Dallas and between getting up at 3:00 AM to get work done and spending all my time working with the great folks at the T-Bar-M club I have been as busy as humanly possible.  As Jimmy Buffett always say’s – “I can’t run at this pace very long!”

 

Next week is catch up time and I’m looking forward to a little sit down work!

 

 

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

I am really interested in the concept of “mastery”.  I especially like the Eastern view of the idea, that in order to master anything, you can not have the goal of wanting to be a master.  Weird huh.  You just achieve the highest level through the love of you chosen field.  It applies to all things.  It might be music, soccer or cooking.  The Japanese call this “Shibumi”.  Here are five factors in one perspective of reaching a level of Mastery:

 

• INSTRUCTION:  Somewhere along your journey you need a good teacher.
• PRACTICE:  Nothing replaces the work at what you love.
• SURRENDER:  Give up your current level to get to a higher level.  When I started playing tennis after a 20 lay off, I needed to change my forehand grip to learn the “modern forehand”.  My coach told me I would be spraying the ball all over the court, but if I stick with it the impact on my game is 6 months would be huge.  I had to surrender my old forehand.
• INTENTIONALITY:  Envision the outcome in your mind and do your best to drive your actions to that intended outcome.
• EDGE:  The edge goes to those who risk getting better.

 

Not a bad list!

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:     Nothing out there driving me to the movies this weekend.  My new rules – only something I really want to see.  I did finally see Juno last week – FANTASTIC.  Great dialog, good story and wonderful acting.

 

NetFlix Fans:  In the Heat of the Night has  40^th anniversary issue that just came out.  One of the great films of all time.

 

TV:    Due to the tennis tournament I have had to TiVo the latest House and Lost episodes.  Can’t wait to get caught up.

 

BOOKS:  The Camel Club  by David Baldacci is a fantastic read!  It introduces a new character that I love.  A great fiction read and thanks Russ Johnson.

 

 

MUSIC:  I love this acoustic version of Car Crash by Matt Nathanson.

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgqc87r4OSI

 

WEB SITES:  Pretty good folk music site.

 

http://folkmusic.suite101.com/blogs.cfm

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Nostalgia kicks in again and the South of Normal audiophiles are making their presence known.  Despite the great sound of digital music, guess what is rising in interest again?  You guessed it, vinyl records!  Yep, the old spinning disk is back again.  Time Magazine reported that sales are up 15% in 2007.  With the leading sellers being Abbey Road (a classic) and Kinda Blue by Miles Davis (the ultimate king of cool).  Why vinyl:

·         Sounds warmer

·         Great album covers with really cool liner notes

·         There are certain social aspect of old technology.

I told a couple of friends about this and they all said they were into vinyl.  Maybe time to take a look backward?

 

I’m wide awake and so alive.

I’m ringing like a bell.

Matt Nathanson

 

 

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

 

 

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