Upheavals

Cultivated scarcity

It’s always an interesting phenomenon when sectors choose to move en masse – because what they effectively do is change the market rules unilaterally. There’s all the appearances of competition, in the sense that there are players in the market who claim to be competing against one another, and different identities to distinguish the variations on a theme, but when everyone in a sector plays to the same rules, the differences for consumers – differences upon which the very spirit of competition depends – are as good as non existent. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 19/06/2010

Understanding the five threats

Here’s some great insights for anyone involved in change programmes of any kind. According to this article in Reuters, the key to successfully transforming organisations lies in better understanding what people feel threatened by. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 4/11/2009

What’s your CSR really saying?

Smart move on the part of Absolut. Link trendy no logo design for Fashion Week in London with a clear social message. In this case, the vodka maker has used lack-of-label to also express their thoughts on a world free of sexual prejudice. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 24/09/2009

The new battlefield

Yesterday I told a group of delegates during a keynote that, in my opinion, we all faced a new battlefield. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 15/08/2009

The Emperor’s new hits

More and more people reportedly are turning off the mainstream media because of the programming and the interruptive marketing messages. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 22/05/2009

The cult of popularity

I wonder if it’s too easy in these days of Twitter and instant global chat to get drawn into believing that every storm in the social media is a public relations disaster or conversely a proven runaway success. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 30/04/2009

In the ship

Boom times really are the season of plenty for those participating in the supply chain. With markets screaming for more to be supplied, being part of the delivery cycle is a highly efficient way to make money. Plentiful transactions virtually guarantee you work. All you have to do is show up. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 14/04/2009

Bookends or beginnings?

Here’s one of those seriously audacious statements that one can only admire. Amazon chief Jeff Bezos announced the arrival of Kindle 2 by saying he wanted to make every book available for download in an electronic form to be read on the device. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 10/02/2009

Facing up to life beyond five

The adage used to be that three years was “forever” in the online world. So, the interesting thing about Facebook turning five recently is not the number of users nor the fact that these days its use is ubiquitous to the point where people use it to announce changes in their marital status. The most interesting point for me is that, after all this time, Facebook has still not found a way to monetarize its business model to anything like its estimated “brand value”. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 9/02/2009

The danger of numbers

As recent times have shown up only too clearly, it’s very easy to confuse strategy with demand – to get to the point where what stakeholders or decision makers want or have led themselves to expect becomes what must be achieved. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 29/10/2008

Message in a fishtank

While everyone else seemed pre-occupied with the fact that artist Damien Hirst had earned $198 million from auctioning his latest works in the midst of financial turmoil, the bit that interested me was that, in doing so, Britain’s extremely rich enfant terrible had completely bypassed the dealer system and sold the works directly through an auction house – the first time anyone had dared defy the established order this way. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 22/09/2008

What were they not thinking?

In the search to capitalise on equity, some brands have pushed the boat out and made it to the other side. Others haven’t been quite so lucky – and Mental Floss gleefully highlights some of the extensions that were a reach too far. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 24/07/2008

Seizing the nettle

Mike and I presented to another group of investor relations specialists in Auckland last week – and one of the things we talked about was the very real risk associated with not communicating well. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 1/07/2008

Outsourcing our thinking

A few days ago, Johnnie Moore referred to whether we were all suffering from internet-induced ADD in a piece that praised the power of succinct. One particular phrase in the post really caught my eye. He talked about the fact that “we're in danger of outsourcing our thinking”. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 24/06/2008

Never say never

I wonder if Michael Jackson knows the words to the Bruce Springsteen classic Glory Days, because it may be a song with more than a hint of relevance. According to this article, Colony Capital, the people who saved Jackson’s ranch from foreclosure, are now looking at a range of options to help him repay his debts. Their suggestions seem to include launching a comeback in Las Vegas, an appearance on Oprah (maybe they’ll wheel out the Tom Cruise couch) and/or doing a TV special. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 17/06/2008

Love is the drug

It’s easy to fall in love with your product, to believe that the thing you’ve worked on so hard for so long is the best thing going. From there, it’s a very small step to believing that everyone must know what you’re doing. And from there, it’s a very small step again to the commitment to do whatever it takes to get your product and all its benefits out to the public. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 9/05/2008

See you round?

Just read a great article by Jim Collins, of Good to Great fame, about life and death on the Fortune 500. Collins points out that over 2000 companies have appeared on the list since its inception in 1955. But of the 500 that appeared on that first list, only 71 are still there today. That’s an 86% disappearance rate. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 1/05/2008

Lessons from Vista

Yes I know I’ve gone on about Microsoft all week, but after reading this article by Peter Griffin this morning, I can see at least five lessons that the company should take from Vista: Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 24/04/2008

Clouds on the horizon

A follow up to my story about Microsoft and Starbucks, courtesy of my friend and colleague Hannah Samuel. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 23/04/2008

The commitment to compete

I disagree with Howard Schultz. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 11/04/2008

Ostrich economics

It’s not a very good year in the airline industry – with American Airlines cancelling hundreds of planes for safety checks, the Terminal 5 chaos at Heathrow, more delays for Boeing’s Dreamliner, the end of the Hong Long based airline Oasis. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 10/04/2008

Running rings around the Games

Imagine if Mahatama Ghandi had had access to the internet. What would he have done to use the medium to best advantage? Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 8/04/2008

The online revenue riddle

Two very different and contrasting stories shed light on just how unresolved (or evolving) the online revenue model continues to be. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 7/04/2008

To free or not to free

You may or may not agree with, or even like, what Chris Anderson has to say about the prevailing forces in a technology-driven economy, but his argument is certainly interesting and well worth the read. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 29/02/2008

The great Apple escape

It’s a fascinating dilemma for Apple. On the one hand, their brand promotes individuality and the right to express yourself your way through their technology. On the other, they’ve tied the roll-out of their iPhones, and a big chunk of revenue, on having a single network partner in each country. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 31/01/2008

Fighting pirates

Great piece today over at Brand Autopsy about Matt Mason’s The Pirate’s Dilemma. Pirates are entrepreneurs who are “doing things differently and working out new ways to share information, intellectual property, and public space.” Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 30/01/2008

Here's the hat. Next rabbit please

Imagine you’re Steve Jobs. You’ve just had your best quarter ever. You’ve achieved your highest revenue and earnings in the company’s history. In one three month period, your profits climbed by 57% from a year ago. Sales for your revolutionary mobile phone have hit 2.3 million. You shifted 44% more computers than the year before. And you shipped out 22 million iPods. You’ve just announced the world’s thinnest laptop. And you’ve signalled that iTunes is about to take it to the movie rental market. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 24/01/2008

How not to set records

Major problems at EMI if the reports are to be believed, with the company rumoured to be looking to axe up to 2,000 jobs. What’s interesting here, aside from the size of the job losses – 36% of the workforce according to my calculator – is the nature of the jobs that are said to be being cut. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 15/01/2008

Innovation depends on making or breaking habits

Earlier this year it was my privilege to work with Rod Drury, Hamish Edwards and the team at Xero as they prepared to take their company public. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 17/12/2007

Ad-ing what exactly?

The music industry is not the only behemoth in a state of dilemma. The ad industry too is struggling to return much more than the savings bank. Again, another business model that looks well past its use-by date. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 4/12/2007

The real pace challenge

According to a report by US analyst firm Nemertes Research featured on the BBC today consumer demand for bandwidth could see the internet running out of capacity in as little as two years. That in turn could mean not only a return to the days of waiting for downloads, but the very real possibility that the next Google or YouTube may not even get off the ground. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 21/11/2007

Honestly?

Just further to the previous post ... how much money do you think many agents in the real estate industry would make if they had to operate under the honesty box system? Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 12/10/2007

Will Facebook change the face of branding?

Suddenly it seems everyone wants to talk Facebook to Facebook. And as the requests have tumbled in this week, it’s led me to question the changes this is bringing for brands. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 18/07/2007

Does intellectual property make you more competitive?

The Trelise Cooper vs Tamsin Cooper case may have wandered off the media radar in recent months, but the questions posed by the case of one designer suing another for, amongst other things, wanting to use the same surname point to bigger brand questions. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 20/01/2007

Stop making sense

The flipside of a marketplace where branding encourages people to buy for emotive reasons is that brands also need to counter consumers’ irrational reasons not to buy. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 11/01/2007

Fairweather friends?

As the UK Met Office predicts 2007 will be the warmest year, interesting article in the Dominion Post this morning about cold weather in December at my end of the world and the effect it's had on retail trade. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 4/01/2007

Budget airlines

Staying with aviation - are budget airlines an industry-changing revolution or aviation’s version of the dot.com era? In other words, as low fare airlines proliferate and prices continue to fall, are we seeing the same disregard for business fundamentals that accompanies an economic bubble, or is this just a phase that the revamped industry needs to go through before everyone comes to their senses and gets back to actually making a dollar? Crunch time will come, I believe, when a budget airline has a mishap and the problem turns out to be safety based or the result of bad maintenance. There’s no doubt that there are valuable lessons for all players in the take-off of the budget airline phenomenon – but learning from their success, not slavishly imitating their business model, could well turn out to be a better, if harder, course of action for mainstream players looking to retain customers and reign in spiralling costs. Read on

category: Challenges | posted: 21/02/2006