Jockey vs. Horse

To create any successful business, you need (among other things) a great idea and a great team. But what is more important? This is a question that has been on the forefront of business news recently.
Anyone who saw the movie “The Social Network” knows exactly what I am talking about. Would Facebook be Facebook without Mark Zuckerburg? Had Mark teamed up with the Winkelvoss twins, would it be nearly as successful? They had a great idea for a website, but Zuckerburg saw the true nature of the idea and the potential it had to change the way the world communicates.

Would the Winklevoss twins realized what they had? Would they have been gutsy enough to turn down $1billion from Yahoo? $15 billion from Microsoft? Would they have been smart enough to not generate ad-revenue immediately? Would they have jumped-the-gun with opening up the site to those without ".edu" email addresses? Would they have created just another college themed myspace?

What do you guys think? What is more important… the jockey or the horse?

Integrity

We are constantly inundated with stories that vilify the business leaders and their shady tactics. We hear story after story about wall-street “fat cats” duping grandma and grandpa out of their hard-earned pension funds. I question how much of this is the norm, or if it just makes for a compelling journalistic story.

I recently had an experience that helped restore my faith… at least in the rising generation of business leaders. I was recently running a business plan competition that had a $500 purse. That is a lot of Top Ramen for any poor college student. We had invited local business leaders to be guest judges for the event.

Just before the event was about to begin, on of the participants met eyes with one of the judges and then walked over and greeted him. They talked for a few minutes, and then the participant walked back over to me and told me that he was going to withdraw from the competition.

The participant (I am not using his name on purpose) told me that the judge was a former business partner, and wanted to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. I was completely floored. I could not believe what I was hearing.

I was so impressed. This student could have participated (and most likely could have won) and not told a single soul about his past relationship with the judge. He gained a lot of credit in my book, and in the book of many of the other business leaders in attendance, which could be worth much more than $500.

1984 No More

There was  a showdown yesterday... Steelers vs. Packers was only a small part of it. This is the time where the ad agencies come out to shine. Many agencies have been built on the notoriety of a single SuperBowl ad.  One of these agencies is Chiat/Day, responsible for the classic "1984" Apple Macintosh commercial. Chiat/Day hung their hat on this ad, and leveraged it to gain many more accounts.

Yesterday, Google took a direct shot at this classic SuperBowl ad, Apple, and Apple users. Was it smart? Take a look.

I thought that this was a fairly clever ad at first. It was an interesting "throwback"  to the classic 1984 ad. 

Here is my problem with it....

It portrays all Apple users as mindless conformist drones. As a recent Apple convert, I had to take offense. I am guessing most of the people who are interested in a tablet, might have some Apple product of some sort... even if it is just an iPod shuffle. 

Rule #1: Don't insult your target market. 

Here is another problem...

Where are the features? If you are going to introduce a product to market, do not show the most boring and obvious features of your product. Show the features that make your product distinctively different than the incumbent. This ad shows that you can look at maps, and view videos on this tablet. Just like the iPad. 

Beautiful concept, poor execution.

Memory vs Experience

My “new” (it is new to me) favorite website is TED.com. If you haven’t heard of it before, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. TED is like a Youtube channel for geniuses, business leaders, and gurus.

I was watching a talk recently on the difference between experience and memories. You can find a link to the video here.  The video really got me thinking about this concept from a marketing perspective. Are we selling experiences or memories?

In the video Daniel Kahneman asks the question, “If money and time were not a factor, where would you want to go on vacation?” He then asked the follow up question, “If you could not take any pictures and left with complete amnesia of the vacation, would the location or activities change?”

The point of the exercise was to determine what you value more, memories or experiences. It was his contention, that the population values memories more than experiences and we choose our vacations and other activities based on the future anticipation on memories.

This has a very interesting application to the marketing process. So much of marketing is selling an experience. We sell the thrill of driving a new sports car, or the pleasure tasting a gourmet meal. According to Daniel Kahneman we should be selling the memory of the drive, and the meal instead of the experience. We value remembering the drive, describing it to our friends and looking at the pictures of where we went. We value thinking of the great food we ate and comparing other food to it.

If this is true, marketers should develop a value proposition that focuses on the memories gained rather than experience created. 

Made vs. Design

I am a recent convert to the world of Mac. I received an iPod Touch a few years ago for Christmas, and was absolutely blown away by the capabilities of such a tiny device. This was just the foothold Apple needed to wiggle its way into my life. After literally years of debate, and a lot of peer pressure, I finally purchased a brand-new MacBook Pro.

I am in love. It was such an easy conversion from PC to Mac. Whenever I got tripped up, or wasn't sure how to do something, I asked myself one question... "If I had never used a computer before in my life, how would I perform this task?" Inevitably, it was my own instincts and not the user manual that helped me learn my new Mac.

This brings me to my real point. When I opened the box to my new computer... I mean Mac, (any Mac-evangalist will tell you that it is not just a computer) I noticed on the inside of the box, these words

"Designed by Apple in California"

So powerful. So much of their brand and corporate image is summed up in that short little sentence. My Mac was not "Made," it was "Designed."  I instantly thought of people in clean white rooms, with designer glasses and black turtlenecks. Complicated formulas and images drawn on whiteboards. Plastic models and clay renderings. Tony Stark with his 3D graphic interface.   Moreover, it was "Designed...in California." Outside of this futuristic design studio, was palm trees, beaches and beautiful people. This was the American dream, come to life.

This is by far one of the most powerful marketing sentences I have seen. So much imagery in so few words. Perfect.

Ask the Patient Where it Hurts!

     So often when a person is coming up with a new business, or a business is developing a new product, they fail to ask the all-important question: "What problem am I solving?" So often (especially in the Technology sector) businesses are so obsessed with the "What it will be" they never stop to think about the "Why it will be." They develop elegant and beautiful solutions to problems that do not exist.

     This entire blog could be dedicated to the companies that fail in this regard. One of the most recent examples of this, is the Microsoft Kin. "Folks and Microsoft lovers were too much excited when the Kin was launched but it flopped. The main reason is that everyone is after the smartphones and wow, Microsoft launched this worst possible phone ever. Main flaws in the Kin are, it gives a pathetic browsing experience. Screen is not large enough if we compare Kin to HTC or Apple, you can easily buy a Droid for the amount you are paying for Kin. Kin disappeared after a month and half after release." (worsttech.com)

     The first rule of medical inquiry is to "Ask the patient where it hurts." The patient is always the best guide to a correct diagnosis and eventual remedy. Business leaders need get the stethoscope out of their ears once in a while and listen to the patient. Otherwise you are stuck trying to cure cancer with a cough-drop or a cold with chemotherapy.

What are your "favorite" terrible products?

Wow... started "blogging" and "Tweeting" all in the same week.

    Part of the purpose of this blog is to share with the world (actually only about 3 people so far) my passions and interests. I always try to stay up to date with the big trends in the business and technology industry. I have posted a few articles that I have found particularly interesting on this blog. I find myself wanting to post so much more, but I do not want the ratio of articles and actual post by me, to be out of balance.

    To keep this balance, I have decided to not post anymore articles in the actual blog. Instead, I have embedded a Twitter feed, and will "Tweet" the articles that I find interesting. I think this will help keep things a little more organized.

    Please check them out. Some of them are amazing and quite insightful.