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

IN OUR WORLD

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all of you and yours!

I am closing an incredibly successful 2009 and I want to make SURE you all know how grateful I am in finding a place of value for my ideas.

I am having a very non-traditional Christmas for a guy who thrives on the tradition the season brings.  Colin (my youngest) is celebrating Christmas in Spain with friends, Laura is in Southern California with her mom and my family as health reasons prevented them from coming to Dallas.  I’m hanging at the Dallas home celebrating Christmas with my oldest, Dylan and his girlfriend Amanda.  First Christmas in 32 years where we are all kind of separated.  I know we are all where we are supposed to be in the Grace found in our lives.

I have a lot of neat stuff in this blog so I hope you have a little time to check out the links!

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

This is my version of scatter shooting a bunch of stuff I found interesting:

• The 2010 TED line up is posted and it once again shows the incredible journey offered by this dynamic and ever changing event.  I hope you all take advantage of their postings:  http://conferences.ted.com/TED2010/program/guide.php
• Blackberry Blackouts – Man, the crackberry folks must all have been ready to check into rehab as the Blackberry crew had two huge outages in one week.  Hey, the phone still worked.  You remember the phone right?  You dial a series of digits and talk to another person.  Try it; you might remember how you liked it.  You probably guessed it, right?  I’m an iPhone guy.
• Fits and Starts -  The economy is, by many measuring sticks, starting its recover.  The big question is; “a recovery to what?”  Certainly the new economy will only have small resemblances to the old economy.  The income index ticked up the fastest rate in the last 6 months, but the .04% will not get champagne corks to pop.  It’s better than a stick in the economic eye.
• Got That 2010 Plan? – Let me help you simplify your 2010 planning.  Despite a business environment that shifts more than the San Andreas Fault, the core of what you do will always be the best filter for your planning ideas:
  • • Don’t Loose Track of What You Do:  It’s a great planning exercise to keep defining what you do and make sure EVERYONE knows.
    • What Value Do You Bring:  Take some time and run your 2010 plans through the old VALUE screen.  Do your plans provide definable value to your team, your customers and your shareholders?
    • I’m Not The Same:  If you think you can do everything like you have done in the past you will be disappointed.  At the same time run those 2010 plans through the differentiation screen.  Do our plans create a sense of separation and differentiation in a commoditized world?

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES:    Invictus:  Clint Eastwood is one of the best film makers in history.  I will see whatever he does.

NetFlix Fans:  500 Days of Summer: A very clever romantic comedy that tugs at your heart and makes you laugh.

TV: Look for some holiday marathons that will break up the family tension of everyone jammed in a small space!  A&E will have Criminal Minds going.  Discovery has Mythbusters running.  SyFy has Stargate.  If you lack cable or satellite coverage – get it for Christmas!

BOOKS:  Return To The Little Kingdom – By Mortiz.  Great book about how Apple changed the world.

MUSIC: So much to share.  I have been learning this song for the past week.  This is the VERY best version of hundreds that have recorded this wonderful painful love song.  Here is Hallelujah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NEU6Xf7lM

WEB SITES: I am always amazed at the people who don’t’ use Pandora to listen to music on their computer while they work.  This is a site that allows you to make your own radio station with your favorite performers.

www.pandora.com

SOUTH OF NORMAL

OK, here are the three so South of Normal ways of thinking that I run into I felt I had to post them:

• Social Media Is Not For Us:  Huh, What?  That is 100 % true if you don’t see the connection to a new and expanding world.  Social media strategy is a MUST and though it appears to be a glob of hard to understand pieces, you don’t have to be an expert to start.  GET GOING and get in the water.
• New Ideas Don’t Need Management:  I wish I could tell you how many organizations are brilliant at seeing the need for a new way to do things while at the same time have no desire to hold anyone accountable for doing these ideas.  They are worried about pushing the system too hard.  Ideas will never show value without constant attention.  If you believe in it enough to launch it, believe in it enough to manage it.  It takes focused ENEGY.
• A Meeting Is A Meeting:  NOPE!  A meeting has three parts; the pre-meeting which enables a meeting to be successful, the meeting itself, stop making them boring and mindless, the post-meeting, what do you do to reconnect to the MEANING of the meeting.  Design and manage meetings to create impact or don’t have them!

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

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

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

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

We made it back from our big adventure in the UK and London will never be the same!  A few observations:

 

• London does Christmas like no other city.  It was beautifully decorated with a great combination of old Victorian and modern features.  Magical!
• London makes Manhattan look like Boise!  I have never seen more people or been in a busier city – EVER.
• Favorite sites – Lloyds of London building and trading floor (still doing business like they did 300 years ago when merchant ships were their most important insured), the hallowed grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (Wimbledon), Abbey Road, 221 B Baker St (look it up), Tower of London, The British Museum, Leicester Square and the Globe Theater (look it up).
• Not the city to visit for food, though if you hunted around you found some treasures.
• It gets dark at 3:30 PM, I mean DARK.  By 6 PM I thought it was 10 PM.
• The TUBE is the best transportation system I have ever seen.  Period.
• The famous Black Cabs (their taxi cabs) are famous for a reason.  EVERY driver takes an exhaustive test about the streets of London and they know exactly where they are going every time.  The cabs are HUGE and immaculate. 
• Street vendors selling Belgium Waffles.  This malty, crunchy treats with a slight sugar coating are FANTASTIC.
• My clients were fantastic to work with and I am so JAZZED about the opportunity to move forward in 2010.

 

I have really cranked out the work the last few days and hope to take it easy next week.

 

Thank you all for the kind words about my youngest son, Colin, who moved to Seville, Spain this week to begin a job as a cultural liaison to the school system of Seville.  It was sad to see him go, but great to think of the grand adventure that awaits him.

 

Here is my latest article:  http://www.creativeventures.com/Magazine/NoBorders.html

 

 

 

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

 

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

One of the great things about what I do is the variety of businesses I get to work with.  From computers to shoes, from food and beverage to insurance, from pharmaceuticals to hospitality, I have to be on my toes and aware of the true and real trends that will be impacting their business.  I have to be able to form strategies around their ideas and keep them consistent with my platform design.  I thought I would pick one and share a few things.

Here are some of the future trends that will be impacting the Food and Beverage industry:

• Consumer Priorities:  The impact of the recession on restaurants and hospitality will have waves of impact for the next 5 years or more.  Customers are concerned about issues that were not even “on the table” two years ago:
  • Personal, emotional and ethical issues are front and center.
  • Intimacy and friendship are important.
  • Food that connects to emotion.
  • Artisan and hand-made foods will be big.
  • Close to home, neighborhood, local will be a big market driver.
  • Comfort and safety will play a role in where people choose to dine.

 

• Upscale the Downscale:  Forget about the $100 dollar bottles of wine or the steakhouses that are down 25% – 30%, diners are looking for traditional burgers and hot dogs which are up in sales.  The opportunity lies in the upscale of these traditional favorites.  Gourmet burgers and hot dogs served with goat cheese and guacamole or fries with truffle oil are going to be big.
• Loosing Control:  With the real time aspect of social networking dominating what people hear and then believe, your customers are in control.  This is not just a food and beverage trend, but an every business trend.  Look for ways to get close to your customers, immediately.  Get a Twitter site.  Broadcast to your readers – ½ well drinks from 7 PM – 8 PM.  Table for 2 at 8:00 PM just opened.
• Check out these new “hot” food items:  Lamb Riblets, Vietnamese sandwiches, artisan hot dogs, fast food delivery (it’s coming and will have a huge market impact), global comfort food and made to order (flash freeze) ice cream.

Now, multiple that by over a dozen industries and you can tell why I start my work day at 3:00 AM!

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:    Avatar:  Don’t like sci-fi flicks?  Who cares!  Go see this magnificent film and let your imagination go free!

 

NetFlix Fans:  Julie and Julia:   Don’t fall off your chair, yes I am recommending what might and I say MIGHT be termed a chick-flick.  I loved this movie and thought it was another showcase for Streep.

 

TV:    Oh, I forgot to mention one thing I hated about London.  The TV in our hotel room had 5, yep count them, 5 channels all BBC.  The highlight of the TV day was when a re-run of Frazier hit the screen.  Though we didn’t spend a lot of time in the room, we Americans expect that ESPN might sneak across the pond.  So, Laura and I have a lot of catching up to do.  The DVR is stuffed with House, Monk, The Mentalist and a few others.

 

BOOKS:  Maestro – By Nierenberg.  Listed as one of the best business books of the year it deals with listening as a key component of leadership.

 

MUSIC:   I know that John Mayer catches a lot of grief, but I am a huge fan.  This is a spectacular cover of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin -

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Ov0cDPZy8         

 

WEB SITES:   If you want to stay on top of things in an ever changing world, bookmark this site.

 

 

 www.trendhunter.com     

 

 

 

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Three new business ideas that show it pays to think South of Normal:

 

1. Philly Kitchen Share is a company that allows hourly rental of commercial kitchens.  So if you are a starting catering company, you now have access to a professional kitchen.  Planning to cook for a large party and your home or apartment kitchen won’t cut it?  Now you have an option:  www.phillykitchenshare.com
2. Looking for help with a logo, brochure design or product name?  Try crowd sourcing the project through www.freshbrand.com .  This site will post your project and the amount you have budgeted and send it to the design world.  You will get a bunch of ideas and pay a minimum of $50 for the idea you select.
3. www.memolio.com is a BETA site that will create compact photo albums from your digital pictures.  Upload up to 24 photos, edit and choose album design and presto, you receive a photo album you can carry in your pocket!

 

 

This is my first shot at adding a photo in the new WordPress blog software, so I hope it works!

 

This has to be the best house Christmas decoration EVER!  The police made him take it down L

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

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

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

Finishing up my first week in London.  Not only did I get some typically tourist stuff done, but started a new client relationship with strategy meetings.  Both my client and I had the same trepidations about a culture clash.  The mitigating aspect is that they do most of their business in the States so they are looking for the type of ideas I was bringing.  The key is the right application.  I hope to have the opportunity to work with their management team on building the traction that will give the type of impact they have the potential of achieving. 

 

We are getting a break in the weather and after a few meetings I will get some time with Laura to take in a few more sights.  We are headed to the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon, Westminster, London Tower and a few more on Laura’s master list.  It seems we have walked across the country as everything is a combination of a tube ride and a long walk.  I love the combination.

 

London is wonderful during the Holidays.  Every night after dinner (food is not the #1 attraction in London, but we have found some favorites) Laura and I walk through the hustle and bustle of Piccadilly Circus (the Times Square of London) and the other hot spots.  They are jammed with holiday activities and the strange combination of a modern city with its Victorian aspects creates kind of a magical feel.  The famous “Black Cab’s” are fantastic.  Clean as a whistle and the cabbies are highly trained to know every street in London.  They also give you a great social/travel dialog with the ride.  It takes about 1 minute to catch one.  The Tube is the best mass transit system I have ever seen and a way cool iPhone app that shows you exactly where you go and where you catch a train.

 

Back in the States on Sunday.

 

 

 

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

 

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

As you know I am in the idea business and I always focus on the key aspect of value – their application.  Ideas are looking for traction, that elusive aspect that makes an idea take off.  Here are a few traction ideas:

• Do it.  The old Nike motto is as applicable in idea application as it is in running.  What holds back a new idea is the fear of DOING IT.  You need to get started.  Leadership is about movement.  The application of doing new ideas is the actual movement of their application.
• Accountability:  I am amazed at the number of times organizations lack the hardnosed attribute of holding people accountable for their actions.  If, a new strategy is put into play and no one is pushing the idea, checking on it, making sure it is in play, its ability to create impact is very limited. 
• Measure:  Find the scale that makes sense for the idea.  How will you determine impact?  Have you provided the right space between the cause (the new idea) and effect (the impact)?  Ideas are measurable; they simply need the right methodology.

Those are the 3 key steps in the APPLICATION of ideas, in the creation of traction and most importantly, in the potential of IMPACT!

 

 

 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:    The Fantastic Mr. Fox will make my Top 10 list for sure.  It is a wonderful film.

 

NetFlix Fans:  Amelie:   During a dinner in London, Laura and I started listing our favorite ‘small” movies.  You know those small, little treats that kind of snuck up on you.  Amelie was a ‘drag to” (your significant other drags you kicking and screaming) but I fell in love with this little gem.

 

TV:    I swear to you, my only BIG complaint is TV in London.  I am working here and so I don’t stay out drinking pints with my new mates.  I like to watch a little telly before I snooze off.  Our hotel gives you four channels.  YEP, four channels.  All are BBC stuff.  The highlight of their TV is Frasier re-runs.  Man, I miss my sports and my House.

 

BOOKS:  A Study in Scarlett – By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  I got to visit 221 B Baker St. the mythological address of the most famous detective of all time.  Great book to introduce you to the master of “inductive and deductive’ thinking.

 

MUSIC:   David Gray started out as a Tube musician in the underground in London.   I have heard some great folks playing during my trips on the subway and I thought I would give you a taste of one that made it big.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPCMsl9tOIU         

 

WEB SITES:   One you will want to bookmark.

 

 

 www.visitlondon.com     

 

 

 

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

In the US, the newspaper business is dying, but here in the UK there are so many daily newspapers I can’t even keep up.  Some are “rags” that read like the National Enquirer, while others are conservative regular style papers.  Here are a couple of British South of Normal Stories:

 

• Famous British actors leaving the great schools of London to attend university in the US.  Emma Watson of Harry Potter film fame is headed to Brown University in Rhode Island. 
• The paper reports on a French book – La Face Cachee des Fesses (The Hidden Side of the Bottom), that is the result of a “highbrow” study on the impact of the derriere on society.
• The papers are filled with Tiger Woods stories, so much that I would not be surprised to hear he has met with aliens.  It is unbelievable the speed with which Tiger has fallen in the social/ sports circles.  But as the news quickly reminds us, the price of celebrity is an up and down ride.

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

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

 

IN OUR WORLD

 

Coming to you from across the pond in Jolly Olde England.  Laura and I are in London for 10 days.  A little tourist stuff and some work for me with a brand new client.  I am jazzed about the opportunity to work with my new friends in England and hope my very American ideas translate well.  I’m about as American as you can get being an ex-surfer who now lives in Texas!

 

The weather is cold but clear (pretty sure we are lucky). 

 

On our arrival date after about 24 straight hours awake, we still managed to drag ourselves to the British Museum.  It’s about a 5 minute walk from our hotel.  There, we saw the ORIGINAL Rosetta Stone!  We also got a history lesson on it.  It inspired me to outline my next article, on the power of recognizing patterns.

 

We have a few days before I start to work on Monday and Laura has the whole few days planned out.  I plan to follow along.  The iPhone has an unbelievable app that shows the London Tube (subway) and all you do is enter a starting and ending point and it will figure out your entire journey.  Way cool!

 

If you want to follow my London adventures, check my Twitter and Facebook postings.

 

 

 

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

 

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

 

Are you looking for some of the legitimate trends that you might see become real players in 2010?  Here are a couple to pay attention to:

• URBANY:  Urban culture IS the culture.  The key here is buyers are becoming more and more sophisticated, using virtually unlimited resources to make buying decisions.  Make sure your bases are covered so a buyer can not only find you, but get to know you.
• LIVING IN REAL TIME:  Everything happens NOW.  If you have a success, make sure everyone knows RIGHT NOW.  If you have a failure, yep, MAKE SURE EVERYONE KNOWS RIGHT NOW.  By the way, be sure to add how you recovered!
• TRACKING AND ALERTING:  The infolust that has grabbed consumers will launch countless new services to help manage all that stuff as well as connect searchers to what they are looking for.  So what does this mean?  How are you found and what do you look like will continue to gain momentum.
• PROFILE MYNING:  Close to Tracking and Alerting is the knowledge that hundreds of millions of consumers are now nurturing some sort of on line profile and 2010 will be a great year to leverage the strategy around this.

 

There you go, just a couple of ideas to get your head going.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

MOVIES:    Up In The Air:  Still not in line for this one, but with both Dylan and Colin on my side, how can Laura say no???

 

NetFlix Fans:  A Strategy Idea:   During a recent client dinner I threw out the discussion topic of – “What movies do you stop on, every time, you are surfing around, no matter where the movie is in its running time?”  Try this and keep a pen with you to jot down some of the movies that stop your friends  dead in their surfing tracks. Reminded me to watch The Boondock Saints again before the sequel comes out.  This is a FANTASTIC and weird little movie.

 

TV:    OK, stop whatever you are doing and go the guide on your humungous HD TV and search for HBO – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert.  This is four hours of non stop music.  Everyone from CSN to Metallica, from Stevie Wonder to U2, from Paul Simon to The Boss, from Jeff Beck to BB King.  I was mesmerized.

 

BOOKS:  You Are What You Choose – By De Marchi & Hamilton.  Backed by 30,000 test results the authors show six traits that impact the way we make decisions; Time, Risk, Altruism, Information, Me and Stickiness.  Good stuff, but sometimes a little too academic.

 

MUSIC:   I usually post a song here, but I was so taken with the HBO Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert that I wanted to give you just a glimpse incase you missed it.

 

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

 

WEB SITES:   One you will want to bookmark.

 

 

 www.chronologicalsnobbery.com     

 

 

 

 

 

SOUTH OF NORMAL

 

Yes, it’s true, Las Vegas is the home of South of Normal, but even by their terms the City Place project is weird.  Huge is scale and in the works for years it is getting ready to finally open.  Located right on the Strip it is a sight to behold, but really, in these times opening something like this seems insane:

 

• Adding 5,900 rooms to a city that already had 141,000 rooms already?
• It covers 67 acres and has a cost of +/- $8.5 billion (give or take a couple of hundred million).
• Room prices in Las Vegas have dropped 25% since last year and visitors are down from an all time high in 07 of 39.2 million to 37.5 million in 08.
• State unemployment is 13.3% (ouch).
• To top it all off there are three more mega hotel projects on hold that will add another 9,390 rooms to the Vegas inventory.

 

I wish I could figure out what they know that I don’t, but here is one thing I do know.  Las Vegas is one of the BEST bargains in the world!

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

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