The Elegance Of Steve Jobs

I'd really like to talk about something other than Steve Jobs this week, but its kind of the only thing everyone is talking about so, here goes...

I once read a book about elegance in design.  One theme stuck with me - the idea of how nature repeats patterns.  The veins in a leaf are the same pattern as a branch on a tree. The whole tree is really that same pattern as the branch repeated over and over...even down into its root system.  Repeating patterns is how nature works. It is what creates elegance.
Humans are part of nature and companies are made up of humans.  So it's "natural" that this pattern could show up in the world of business as well.  I've always thought Apple was a good example of this pattern and its one of the reasons they have elegance in what they do.
From what I've been told, Mr. Jobs may be difficult to work with etc., but he is also a singularly focused individual.  That singular focus repeats itself in the simplicity of Apple hardware design, user interface, retail store design and even product offerings - one choice of iPhone (for now). The sum of that repeated pattern is what creates Apple's elegance.  And, since the company is such a personality driven organization, the genesis of the pattern starts in Steve Jobs' mind.
The opposite therefore is also true.  Schizophrenic thought leadership leads to schizophrenic decision making which leads to schizophrenic product design, product offerings, retail presentation, etc., etc.
It is so simple yet so true.  And, that too is the elegance of nature at work.
So for me, the question about Apple's future is not about their ability to innovate.  The question is: can they continue the pattern that has led to their elegance now that the seed of that pattern has stepped aside?

Be Your Own Disruption

August 15-19th.  Wow, what a week.  Google enters the hardware business and HP exists.  And, there are rumors that BlackBerry will get into the music business in coming months.  I always knew it was hard to see into the future, but its getting just as hard to see the present.
In a previous blog entry I questioned if there actually is a tablet market or just a iPad market. "Is There Really A Tablet Market?"  Well, with HP's quick exist out of the tablet game the carcasses are starting to pile up pretty deep outside the walls of Fortress iPad.  With nine million iPads being purchased every quarter, the competition has put a scratch on the iPad's empire.  Now, with HP's exit out of the hardware business, perhaps there is validity in Steve Job's musings about the "post PC" era.
How did we get here?
The Harvard Business Review offers up some interesting thoughts: HP's Decade-Long Departure. It goes something like this - HP, and many other PC makers, were at the top of their game and started "consolidating" and "leveraging" which is what you do when you occupy the throne of status quo.  Meanwhile Apple was paying serious attention to "mobility".  Rather than creating off the shelf patchwork mobile products and leaning on the equity of its strong brand, Apple created a real complete solution.  Enter the iPod and enter the beginning of the end of the world as we knew it.  Rather than improving and maximizing the current category they disrupted and created a new space.
The best thought in the article is when it is suggested that right now you can be sure that Apple is contemplating the "Post iPhone" era.
We should all be contemplating the demise of our own products and brands.  The best hedge against the unpredictable future is to be your own disruption.  The disruption is coming...it might as well be you.
As Dwight D Eisenhower said, "Plans are worthless.  Planning is everything."

Looking Differently At The Things We Never See.

I've stated it before - one of the most important things a marketer should do is always look around and try and figure out "what's going on".  In fact it should be a natural ability.  Marketers are observers.
The other thing marketers need to be is brave.  Look at things differently.  Do things differently. And, openly embrace experimentation.  Without these traits it's difficult to create bold ideas and bold ideas is what we do...hopefully.  As Lee Clow said in a recent tweet,  "A passive message only invites people to pass you by".  
Recently I decided to exercise my inner observe, explore and experiment.  
In my recent travels I've had time on my hands and rather than looking up or forward like everyone else, I allowed myself to look down at artwork that most of us never have the time to see.  Manhole covers.  There are some brilliant designs below us.  Worthy of our attention.  I began photographing them in a way that might make art out of the art.  And now, I've created a new blog in an effort to experiment with the idea of creating a movement around something as insignificant as a manhole cover.  Art Under Us.
But this is what we do.  We look differently at the things most people never see.  
Visit Art Under Us.  Pass it on.  Go off and observe something small and amazing and submit your own photo.  
This is what we do.

Two Thoughts On Leadership And Followship

I've been thinking about leadership lately and what it really means.  I tend to break things down to simple core ideas because I usually find the raw, unspun truth there.  It's easy to acknowledge that leadership is the act of leading.  Duh.  To be a leader you have to have followers.  Duh again.  But think about it... a follower is someone who follows and patterns themselves after their leader.  As every parent knows, kids do what you do, not what you say.

Business Leadership
I think most business leaders today do not spend enough time thinking about the act of "followship".  Our idea of leadership is more inclined to be similar to dictatorship.  We want to tell people what to do and have them do it.  We want to have rules for the leadership that are different than the rules for everyone else. Our idea of leadership includes entitlement.  We may think a leader's job is to set a course, but we often forget it is also to set an example of behavior.  Actually its not even a job because it will happen regardless - it is a core responsibility.
Make no mistake, the rules that apply to a leader will apply to the followers.  Followers will find a way of following.  Followship happens.

Market Leadership
I see a lot of businesses and brands that seem have a strategy that focuses on refined model of following the market leader in hopes of someday overtaking the leader.  As I say - followship happens.  It is a bizarre concept to think you can follow your way to becoming the market leader.  Following just re enforces the activities of the leader in the consumers' eyes - thus galvanizing your position as #2 or #3.  No one has followed their way into market leadership.
There is only one way to the goal of market leadership and that is through disruption.  True disruption doesn't mean an improvement on the current category attributes, it means innovation to such an extent that a new category ( or sub category) is created thus making you...voila...the leader.

Followship happens.  Leadership...well that's up to you.

4 Odd Marketing Thoughts For Summer

It's summer. The middle of summer.  My view of the lake is pretty much perfect, so this blog entry is going to be light and easy.  Just like the days of late July and early August.  So, here are four little bits of info to ponder while you have a cold drink.

1. Lists with numbers in them are a growing trend in Internet blogging.  A recent quick scan of my twitter account turned up the following examples (it took no more than two minutes to find these):

• 14 Types Of Stories You Can Tell On Your Blog
• 9 Latin American Accelerator Programs You Should Know
• 5 Advantages to Using Google Plus For Photo Sharing Over Facebook
• 10 Leaders And The Surprising Ways They Stay Productive
• 20 Extremely Good Online Ads
• 12 Finer Points Of Email Etiquette

I'm told this is a new trend based on the fact that we want bite sized information served up to us in this modern age.  There is just too much out there so we crave short lists.  

I'm not all that sure this is a new trend.  I think this has been used before with some success:

• 10 Commandments
• 7 Deadly Sins
• ...heck there are even 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.

2. It may seem impressive to have lists that have 10 to 20 items in them, but really most of us can only remember three things.  I don't really recall all the 10 Commandments, the 7 Deadly Sins, and beyond getting on a bus I don't really know all the 50 ways to leave a lover much less the 6 Ways To Successful Sponsorships.  

Do yourself and the world a favor - make your list three items long and make them really good points.  

3. The word "The" is a really complex and weird word, especially when associated brand names or cultural icons.  Here are 3 "the" examples.

• Referring to the Internet as "the Internet" sounds just fine.  But saying "the Facebook", well that's something your grandmother does.  
• I always found it odd when people referred to BlackBerry as "the BlackBerry".  "Do you have the BlackBerry?"  Who says that?  Why?  
• Oddly, putting "the" in front of sport team names always happens and it sounds perfectly fine.  The NY Yankees, the LA Lakers...and Da (the) Bears!

Can someone explain all that to me?

4.  Ahh, forget it.  You'd never remember the forth thing anyway.  Go have a nice cool drink and a swim.  

Content Is King, But Context Is The King Maker.

I have a simple belief.  The context of what you have to say is often more important than what you say.  The power of words is often overlooked or misused when it comes to communicating...be that in an ad, meeting or even a tweet.  
Words carry emotion. Words carry pictures. Words carry a whole world of symbols and universal meanings that engage an audience's heart and mind.  Words do not just communicate - they can also cast spells.  
Mothers often tell their children, when the wee ones are over eager and not thinking clearly  - "Use your words!".  Sometimes I think the marketing world needs to be reminded to "use your words" as well.  
I believe marketing copy in Social, Digital and all places needs to be powerfully thoughtful, simple and most of all - designed to create engaging context for what we are trying to say.
Ironically, the following link to a video says this so much better than my own words can.  
The Power of words.
People say content is king.  True.  But, context is the king maker.

The Most Important Marketing Skill: "Getting it".

Last week I was in Chicago, between meetings and in need of free WiFi but not in need of a double espresso.  A perplexing problem.  So in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon I did something I haven't done in over 10 years - I walked into the downtown public library. I found an empty table, opened my laptop, hooked into the WiFi network and made a valiant attempt at being productive.  It didn't last that long because I was quickly distracted by the world around me.  I was fascinated by the group of disenfranchised people within the building.  I was saddened and inspired by what I saw.  I wanted to write about the experience, but my blog is about marketing - not a sermon about humanity.  Later in the day I walked among the crowds of shoppers on Michigan Ave.  It wasn't quite so inspiring.  Determined to find a way to fit my library experience into my blog I went and had a drink and pondered.  Two drinks later I crafted an idea...

The Marketing Message:
I may not be doing much "marketing" at the moment, but I am a marketer...and will always be a marketer.  That afternoon in a downtown Chicago public library I was doing what every marketer should do - I was looking at society around me and trying to understand what was going on.  I wasn't engrossed in my own importance. (To be clear, I'm am as engrossed in my own importance as anyone - but I set that aside for ever so brief of a moment.)  I wasn't projecting my view onto the crowd or attempting to change the crowd. (Two of the biggest and most common mistakes in marketing.)  Instead I was captivated in the lives around me and what did or did not motivate them.  I was fascinated to see how they interacted with each other and what, if any, rules and norms they followed.
It is my belief that if you work in marketing - this desire to understand what is going on in the world around you should be your number one driver.  It should come ahead of wanting to be creative, having a VP job title or anything else we have come to believe as being important.  We marketers should be constantly looking around ourselves and asking "What's going on?"  It's so vital that we "get" what is shaping the behaviors of society around us.  Without a fanatical desire to "get it", we fail as marketers because there is one thing I know for sure - society does not need to "get" your brand and certainly does not need to "get" you.

The Inspiration Message:
So, what did I see in the Chicago library?  All around me was an abundance of people with time on their hands who were trying.  Some were old.  Some were in their early 20's.  Many were black.  But, unlike the disenfranchised that we see on the streets - these people had not given up on life despite the fact that stores, streets and social patterns outside that building had no real place for them.  Almost every computer available was being used.  Older people trying to learn yet another new bit of technology that will allow them to stay connected to an ever distant world. Younger people using the computers to find jobs.  I watched people struggle their way through newspapers in search of some form of hope.  And, I watched a young black man teach an old white woman how to google.  Everyone was busy trying to do something.  Trying to improve.  Thank god the city gave them a place to try.
There is a T.S. Elliot quote on the wall of Chicago library that sums up what I witnessed and felt:

"The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man."

I was inspired by what I saw.  I was inspired by witnessing the act of trying - not the act of succeeding.  Trying, as I am learning, is far more relevant to our lives than success.  And, by trying to understand the patterns of the room around me I also honed my most important marketing skill - the act of "getting it".