Feb. 24 2010

Letterheady: Interesting Letterhead Designs

superamit:

This is a blog deserving of your love, biz+design fans.

tasty.

Jan. 28 2010

The wrong business model?

Delivering immediate effect might not be the best business model for designing long-term valuable marketing initiatives.
…

There is a need for long term marketing initiatives; digital concepts and ideas need to carry the longevity of product relationships. Which also implies a different way of measuring value. (What are the metrics identifying the value of a relationship? Are they the same as used for our ability to traffic people back and forth from, and around in, cyberspace?)

Dec. 21 2009

America can't make things because managers all learn finance instead of production

But these executives were frequently numb to the sorts of innovations that enable high-quality production at low cost.

proof points and unique positioning:

  • speaking of sheds, here’s the other side of this story realized:  catskill farms.  there is a lot of innovation here that gets hidden by simplicity - but that’s the point.  it’s turning a bi-product of american opulence on its head.  no more huge, costly palatial houses far away that burden you.  they’re focused, approachable, controlled well-built and beautiful.  a very smart business model that generates more than fiscal reward.

::exhales::  i know this is sort of open-ended and more “okay, i get it - how do we fix it?”  but maybe that’s the point.  everyone is looking for ways to right the ship, to get us back on track, to get “us” flourishing again.  to become omnipotent and ignorant all at once again probably shouldn’t be our best intention, veiled or otherwise.

we can do this differently and it doesn’t have to be choosing between one or the other.  i’m absolutely sure of that.

Dec. 11 2009

TechCrunch sues Fusion Garage over the Joojoo -- we break it down -- Engadget

i’m really less into this debacle b/c of the actual tech & product but more about how arrington’s only chess piece is his blog and everyone who reads it that doesn’t take every single pixel with a grain of very big salt.  begging people to tell their readers about drama surrounding a product?  weak charlie, weak.

i’m not going to buy whatever pad this is b/c the price is too much but if i did, i’d do it in spite.  mikey is going to come up on the losing end of a business deal he either handled horribly from the beginning or couldn’t withdraw himself out of quick enough.

this is a great case study surrounding law, business, contracts, perception, media and hedging your equity on your mistakes.

Nov. 12 2009

Business Model Generation

“Businesspeople don’t just need to understand designers better; they need to become designers.”
Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management

Nov. 10 2009

Untangling brand and customer experience, in 10 minutes or less

Does the brand define the customer experience, or is the customer experience the brand? Your work may involve both, but you probably attack problems with a bias for one or the other.

a common business problem is not understanding how this works, what makes sense and what is appropriate.  not just from a communications stand-point but, really, how you operate and engage across the board.

this is a great video that distills the issue, misconceptions and proper solutions.  watch it and you’ll probably want to start reverse engineering your business.

daunting?  well, if you can’t take the heat then get out of the kitchen.

(via alex)

Nov. 04 2009

herosquad:

foursquare announced insights data for local businesses will be added soon.  The venue will be able to gather check-in data and learn more about the patterns of their customers.

what’s important here is the kind of data businesses get about a certain kind of customer.  sure, there are other ways to measure this type of stuff.  look at sales trends, inventory data, etc. but that puts all your customers on the same plane and shows growth opportunity on a singular plane as well.

how can a business appeal and adjust for the portion of their audience who is highly-engaged (this is a generalization because i mean more than just “online”)?  data, systems and tools like this are a start.

Oct. 19 2009

We’re moving product, while the soul drowns like a cat in a well.

Quitting the Paint Factory by Mark Slouka (via gina)

funny that i came across this before a small announcement i’ll have tomorrow.  ideal that it shared something that’s been in the back of my head for a long time (the whole essay is worth reading, focus in on the story of sherwood anderson).

guard your mind and guard your mind’s time.

Oct. 04 2009

The bottom line is that success in a knowledge economy requires different thinking, different aptitudes, and a different approach to work. The focus of a knowledge-driven company must be on creativity and systems thinking rather than planning and efficiency.
(via The knowledge economy)

Jun. 29 2009

Toward a theory of information relativity

People will also believe that they understand something when they don’t really understand it. Have you ever left a meeting where everyone seemed to be in agreement, yet their later actions made it clear that they didn’t agree after all? It’s common to see nodding heads in a room when people don’t agree – they think they agree but in reality they don’t. This is because when an explanation is sufficiently vague, people are free to believe what they want to believe. Politicians often use this rhetorical principle to great effect. Words like “freedom, justice and fairness” mean different things to different people. Vague explanations are common in business, and they can give the illusion of agreement. But they don’t get results.