ATTENTION : Relocation of blog

My blog will be relocated to :
http://ideasirkus.blogspot.com
because I feel it reflects my personality better
Please check it out by clicking on the above link

Sirk.

Metabolism

According to Tom Peters "metabolism" is the word that expresses the
extraordinary pace of change and responsiveness required by enterprise.

In the present day economy the CEO needs to be master of metabolic
management.

Progressive Insurance Company is one of the best firms in the world. In any
industry states Tom Peters. In any industry. "We don't sell insurance"
Mr.Lewis the CEO says, "we sell speed"

In the past, "best practice" meant that a company had a strategy meeting
every couple of times a year, but we think, says eBay's Meg Whitman, we
need one ..."twice a week."

metabolism! That's the word that expresses the extraordinary pace of change
required, the extraordinary "responsiveness" on the part of the enterprise.
"The organisations we created have become tyrants." wrote Frank Lekanne
Deprez and Rene Tissen in Zero Space. " They have control holding us
fettered, creating barriers that hinder rather than help our business. The
lines that we drew on our neat organizational charts have turned into
walls, that no one can scale or penetrate, or even peer over." And those
barriers ... MUST NOT STAND... in the new world order!

Hence it is my contention that one of the CEO's top jobs is the... DIRECT
MANAGEMENT OF THE CORPORATE METABOLIC RATE. It's two things: Using
leadership by personal example. And the very best and boldest in new
technology to speed things up. And it's ... Destroying (All the) Old
Stuff... and... INVENTING ENTIRELY NEW FORMS OF ORGANIZATION!

Quoted from Tom Peters

THE BRAND (The Story!)

(The Dream!) (The Love!)

It All Adds Up to … THE BRAND. (The Story!)

In the end, it is all about CHARACTER!

Futurist Rolph Jensen, head of the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies, puts it more oceanically: “We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As information and intelligence become the domain of computers, society will place more value on the one human ability that cannot be automated : emotion. Imagination, myth, ritual—the language of emotion—will affect everything from our purchasing decisions to how we work with others. Companies will thrive on the basis of their stories and myths. Companies will need to understand that their products are less important than their stories.”

Mr. Jensen, has a point

“WHAT’S THE DREAM?” When Kevin Roberts took over as Big Boss at Saatchi & Saatchi, he had a dream: Nothing is impossible. To be revered as a hothouse for world-changing creative Ideas that transform our clients’ brands, Businesses, and Reputations.

Quoted from : Tom Peters

The Harley Davidson Experience

Harley-Davidson, you can call it a “machinery manufacturer” (“guys who make motorcycles”). I call it …

Well …

A Harley-Davidson executive (not the editor of Motorcycle Management) says,

“What we sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him.”

“It took me years and years,” Harley CEO Rich Teerlink explains over dinner, “to convince Wall Street that we’re not a ‘machinery manufacturer’ but a ‘lifestyle company.’” When Mr. T made that “sale” in lower Manhattan his market capitalization increased by … $10B or so.

Harley sells … EXPERIENCES! How else can you explain their third quarter of 2004 results: HD’s revenues were a scant 2 percent of General Motors’; their profitability was … 50 percent of GM’s!

Harley-Davidson sells … EXPERIENCES!

And the bigger point: SCINTILLATING EXPERIENCES … are the … ulTimaTe “professional service.”

Mr. Pine and Mr. Gilmore provide us as referent the … “experience ladder.” “Raw materials” are the bottom rung. Then “goods.” Then “services.” And then at the apex …EXPERIENCES.

I like that. And I also wish to alter it.

I’ll keep raw materials, goods, services. Then I want to add “SOLUTIONS” as the next step up the ladder. (The IBM, UPS, GE bit.) And then, indeed, we can move to Messrs. Pine and Gilmore’s … EXPERIENCES.

Quoted from Tompeters!

The fear and discomfort of creative thinking

The other day, passing through the mall I noticed a product promotion being prepared. They took over most of the center of the mall, covering it with carpet and peppered it with a handful of glass shelves. The razor being promoted belonged to one of the major brands and the model under promotion was inspired by Formula 1, including the bright colors and graphics, just missing the roar.

Observing the goings-on of the preparation realizing the resources of the manufacturer and the potential of the product, I expected a roar.

Creative promotions or business cause discomfort amongst all parties. The more creative the strategy the more unease is caused. It is exactly this unease and the courage to go through with the strategy by all parties involved which can cause the company to stand out and reap the success of its efforts.

Getting back to the mall, I could not believe the final shape of the promotion. No roar, no bang, no lights not even a sizzle. With this image in mind, I could not help but dream up a show for the razor. In contrast to the half dozen dressed up youngsters I saw, I imagined something more shocking and memorable, not something for the preppy crowd who mostly would be in the possession of a Philishave anyway, not feeling the need for a multi-blade hand razor with the closest, smoothest shave ever. Imagine youngsters, sporting a crew cut, the Bruce Willis look, lining up to have graffiti art shaven on their heads. Imagine....?

Creative experiential ideas invoke a certain amount of fear. If this feeling causes a sense of connection with the target audience it may result in the virus-like spread of the offering. From the other side, prior to acceptance it may cause a significant amount of resistance from the project head, afraid of the risk of failure. Although failure as such is not necessarily a bad thing. It gives us an indication of direction. Based on the observation of minor failure big successes can be shaped.

"Behind a perfect performance is a thousand mistakes", Adidas

Some Like it Raw

There are two ways to prepare the carrot for consumption: it can be left untouched (raw) or it can be cooked. Invitations to become a customer are either raw or cooked.

We’re most familiar with cooked invitations. Cooked invitations are about production values, deliberate creative messaging, market research, and technique.

That’s the traditional invitation most of us grew up with. We felt manipulated by the broadcast model of radio and TV commercials, gimmicky print ads that urged us to “come on in”, and sales techniques which had us signing on the dotted line before we knew what hit us. While there are good and honest examples of cooked invitations, many of us have grown weary (and leery) of the overcooked world of marketing.

That’s why raw is “moving up the charts”. Raw brand invitations don’t worry about super-high production value. They avoid slick. They’re very direct and straightforward. Transparency is more important than technique. And it’s served up using social networking and conversational media. YouTube, blogs, wikis, and word of mouth are some of the great ways to disseminate the raw, unfiltered story of your brand. Your potential customers, tired of the overcooked messages of the broadcast world, are eating it up.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a highly-produced Super Bowl ad as much as the next guy. But there is a line that gets crossed and that’s when I feel the hype – some marketer is trying to yank me around. That’s when I go looking for a raw, direct, and honest invitation to become someone’s customer.

People are now faster and smarter than the advertising and sales guys – they have been for some time. Ad agencies schooled in the traditional cooked version of creative are now open to something a bit more raw and believable. Raw is catching on.

Your brand is marked by the way you invite people to buy into what you are selling. Have you thought through how much cooking is too much? Consider dicing up your brand’s message and serving it raw – at least once.

Some like it raw.

Link to "OwnYourBrand"...