EMBA的小眼睛

Smaller and smaller

For a long time, Australians thought of themselves as living on the edge of the Earth, a long haul from markets, from industries and from colleagues.

Today, of course, Australia is precisely in the middle.

That's because the world keeps getting smaller and ideas and connection are the currencies that matter, not atoms or molecules.

Consider this new campaign for really comfortable handmade shoes from Lahore. Lahore as in Pakistan. Handmade leather shoes are a click away, regardless of where they were made, but you might choose these.

Feeling the heat

When things get dicey, we notice that some people are feeling the heat. Others are just fine, doing their work, unfazed by the situation.

The thing is, it's not the heat that's actually the issue. It's the feeling.

How you process what's happening is up to us, isn't it?

Symptoms and diseases

A fever is a symptom. There's an underlying disease that causes it. Giving you a fever (sitting in a sauna) doesn't make you sick, and getting rid of the fever (in a cold bath, for example) doesn't always get rid of the illness.

The New York Times bestseller list used to be a symptom, the symptom that a book was really popular. Now, it’s so easy to game and fake that some people have confused themselves into thinking that being on the list can actually cause your book to be popular.

It’s easy to be fooled into paying a lot to hire a salesperson who is leaving a fast-growing company. After all, it seems like hot-shot gifted salespeople are often the cause of a company growing fast. In fact, we often see that a fast-growing company seems to produce hot-shot salespeople (or programmers or whatever).

Does the really buzzy launch party make the movie good, or does a good movie get a better party?

None of this makes sense

Your own personal media company, the focus on building individual skills, the networks that we're all part of...

It makes no sense that we're busy spending our 'work' time weaving together audience, passion and new competencies.

Unless.

Unless we also acknowledge that the old method of productivity, of being a good employee by obediently doing what you are told, is obsolete.

A simple way to look at effective advertising in a digital age

Would you miss it if it weren't there?

Vogue magazine regularly runs more than 600 pages in length. And that's fine, because it's worth more with the ads than without them.

On the other hand, if the ads disappeared from Twitter, would the service be better or worse?

Media companies of the future will be built on ads we want to see, ads we'd miss if they were gone.

The sophistication of truth

A common form of complexity is the sophistication of fear.

Long words when short ones will do. Fancy clothes to keep the riffraff out and to give us a costume to hide behind. Most of all, the sneer of, "you don't understand" or, "you don't know the people I know..."

"It's complicated," we say, even when it isn't.

We invent these facades because they provide safety. Safety from the unknown, from being questioned, from being called out as a fraud. These facades lead to bad writing, lousy communication and a refuge from the things we fear.

Crucial elements for the placebo effect

Placebos, used ethically, are powerful tools. They can cure diseases, make food taste better and dramatically increase the perceived quality of art. They can improve the way teachers teach, students learn and we judge our own safety.

Not all placebos work, and they don't function in all fields. Here are some things that successful placebos have in common:

They do best when they improve something that is difficult to measure objectively.

Does this stereo sound better than that one? Is your headache better today than it was yesterday? How annoying was it to wait for the bus in this new bus shelter?

Two purposes of user feedback

What's a customer worth?

A customer at the local supermarket or at the corner Fedex Print shop might spend $10,000 or even $25,000 over the course of a few years. That's why marketers are so willing to spend so much time and money on coupons, promos and ads getting people to start doing business with us.

But what happens when it goes wrong? What if a service slip or a policy choice threatens that long-term relationship?

If you know what's broken, you can fix it for all the customers that follow. It seems obvious, but you want to hear what customers have to say. After all, if people in charge realize what's not working, the thinking is that they might want to change it.

Things well done (and the smartest Lt Gov candidate ever)

The Overcast podcast app is my favorite. And this is my favorite podcast.

Chris Guillebeau's new book is a pleasure to read. And here are two insightful books on b2b consultative selling, one a classic, one new. And Rohan's blog is better than ever.

Tim Wu, perhaps the smartest person crazy enough to run for Lieutenant Governor of New York, wrote a book called The Master Switch that ought to be read by every person who cares about the future of the internet, even if you're not able to vote for him tomorrow.

These earplugs actually work. While it's not true that reading in bed will ruin your eyesight, it's pretty easy to set yourself up for fifty years of aural unhappiness in exchange for just a few too-loud experiences.

Different kinds of broken systems

From healthy to toast...

Something is broken, we know it's broken, we can fix it right away and we'll learn from it.

It's broken, we know it's broken, we fixed it, don't worry, but we learned nothing, it will break again, I'm just doing my job.

It's broken, we know it's broken, but we don't think we can afford to fix it.

The most important marketing decision the CMO makes...

Is the goal to get people to notice what we make?

or

Are we setting out to make something people choose to talk about?

If you don't know your boss's answer to this, find out. If you do, act accordingly.

If you can't sell it, you can't build it

Architecture students bristle when Joshua Prince-Ramus tells them that they are entering a rhetorical profession.

A great architect isn't one who draws good plans. A great architect gets great buildings built.

Now, of course, the same thing is true for just about any professional. A doctor has to persuade the patient to live well and take the right actions. A scientist must not only get funded but she also has to persuade her public that her work is well structured and useful.

It's not enough that you're right. It matters if it gets built.

Go first

Before you're asked.

Before she asks for the memo, before the customer asks for a refund, before your co-worker asks for help.

Volunteer.

Offer.

Same as it ever was

Here are two of the first photographic portraits ever taken, far more than a hundred years ago:

Same as it ever was

They could have been taken with Instagram, no?

I'm all in favor of self-driving cars and advanced robotics that will change everything. But few of us get to do that for a living. Mostly, we find new ways to do old things, better. No need to fool yourself into holding back just because your innovation or product doesn't contain a flavor that's never been tasted before or an experience previously unimagined.

Finding your peer group

Your peer group are people with similar dreams, goals and worldviews. They are people who will push you in exchange for being pushed, who will raise the bar and tell you the truth.

They're not in your business, but they're in your shoes.

Finding a peer group and working with them, intentionally and on a regular schedule, might be the single biggest boost your career can experience.

When in doubt, re-read rule one

Rule one has two parts:

a. the customer is always right

b. if that's not true, it's unlikely that this person will remain your customer.

If you need to explain to a customer that he's wrong, that everyone else has no problem, that you have tons of happy customers who were able to successfully read the instructions, that he's not smart enough or persistent enough or handsome enough to be your customer, you might be right. But if you are, part b kicks in and you've lost him.

衛生署統計，台灣成年吸菸人口約350萬人，每年有1萬8800人因菸害而喪失生命，每半小時就有1人因香菸受害。18%死亡、三成罹癌，都與吸菸有關，吸菸是國人健康頭號殺手，看到以上的數據後，有菸癮的朋友們應該都想規畫如何戒菸了吧!但戒菸總是從明天開始，如果你可以測量及評估並呈現每天抽菸的數據，可以更有效地提醒自己抽菸的量，相信能更明確地規劃及實行自己的戒菸計畫，現在有一款智慧型打火機Quitbit可以幫助這些菸癮君子們實行戒菸計畫，以下是Quitbit的簡短介紹影片。

Quitbit採用類似於汽車點菸器的熱線圈設計，當香菸接觸打火機的點菸器時，Quitbit內建的感應器就可以得知使用者在抽菸，Quitbit計算點燃的每根香煙，並在Quitbit顯示屏顯示你的吸煙習慣，例如你抽了多少支香煙、抽了多久。聰明巧妙的Quitbit只記錄使用者的吸菸習慣。無論使用者輕彈了香菸或與朋友分享它，Quitbit都能排除其他資訊只收集到使用者的抽菸數據。

Quitbit採用了最新的無線藍芽技術，藍牙連接到使用者的智慧型手機。使用Quitbit的app設定抽菸減量目標，看看自己因為減量抽菸而少花了多少錢。你甚至可以設定每天的抽菸量，一但到達目標，Quitbit就會停止運作。

創始人Ata Ghofrani 表示，目前太多的智慧型穿戴設備都在鼓勵使用者養成新的習慣，例如無數的運動手環都在鼓勵我們多運動，但很少會讓鼓勵使用者戒掉不良習慣，而Quitbit是一項反向思考的設計。

"I don't have any good ideas"

That's a common mantra among those that say that they want to leap, but haven't, and aren't, and won't.

What they're actually saying is, "I don't have any ideas that are guaranteed to work, and not only that, are guaranteed to cause no criticism or moments when I'm sure the whole thing is going to fall apart."

And that sentence is probably true.

But no good ideas? C'mon.

How will you choose your next project?

After you make a list, after you've exhaustively chronicled your options, will you choose: easy, cheap, proven, brave, certain, big payoff, fun, convenient, known, unknown, important, urgent, challenging...

There is no perfect answer, but knowing which way your compass points (and saying it out loud) is the best way to move forward.

It's called self esteem

What other people think of you is called "other-people esteem." That's a different thing altogether.

If it's better to think well of yourself, then by all means, go ahead. No need to wait for us to do it for you. Without a doubt, uncaring people can tear you down and make this more difficult, but at some point, you can make a choice.

Self esteem is something that is done to childen, but for adults, it becomes a choice.

It's up to you.