Archive for category General Interest

Fix Your Garage Doors (via Sanborn and Associates)

Posted by ellistyle in General Interest on January 31, 2011

Fix Your Garage Doors

There is a very nice home in our neighborhood that was bought as a foreclosure and then renovated to flip. My wife Darla and I have seen the inside and it is nicely finished with a huge backyard.

There is also a spray-painted patch on one of the garage doors and a big ding on the other. It would look bad on any home much less one listed at $650,000.

I asked the realtor why it hadn’t been fixed. “Oh, it will be very soon. The seller knows that it detracts.”

That was six weeks ago and nothing has been fixed.

Great house, decent value and off-putting features. One of these is not like the others.

How often do we have garage door dings in our businesses? We have a great product or value proposition but there is a payment policy that customers don’t like or  a service rep who is unpleasant or bad response times to inquiries or… And we know these things are off-putting and plan to fix them right away. But we don’t get around to it. We’re like the investor who renovates the house but only gets it 99.3% right.

Thought for the day: look for the dings and flaws in your value proposition. Find the dent in the garage door and fix it ASAP.

via marksanborn.com

This is an excellent point. However, in business (and as it pertains to personal flaws) our “garage doors” are likely neither easily observable nor remedied with a trip to Home Depot and a Saturday afternoon. A great point nonetheless.

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Limitless or limited resources.

Posted by ellistyle in General Interest on December 4, 2010

via thisisindexed.com

If you only have one or two, you are still probably better off sharing them. That is, unless your first idea is on par with the lightbulb or microchip, and your second is a innovative way to put the former effectively into action.

I love thisisindexed.com

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The Element of Surprise in Middle-School Football – NYTimes.com

Posted by ellistyle in General Interest on November 23, 2010

The Element of Surprise in Middle-School Football

By FREAKONOMICS

No, this trick won’t work in the NFL, but Driscoll Middle School in Corpus Christi, Tex., pulled it off brilliantly. During a recent game, the “middle school quarterback is handed the ball at the snap in such a manner that his opponents believe the play has not begun. And the teenage player then brazenly strolls through the opposing ranks without a finger laid on him before realizing his ploy has come good.” The quarterback then takes off running all the way to the end zone.

It will probably be some time before Driscoll is able to pull off this play again. But it sure would be fun to see them try …

via freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

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A Cynical View of Passion

Posted by ellistyle in Branding, General Interest, Marketing, news, Passion, Self Improvement on July 23, 2010

A few months ago, I ran into a fast food joint to boost the economy.  The normal surly teenagers were present and ready to serve me way more than my recommended daily dose of calories.  Then the manager came into view.  Except I am fairly certain that this manager was probably the manager’s manager’s manager and she was very “enthusiastic” about her job.  She likely had participated in high level meetings about the new company slogan and what specific wording might lead to a super-sized order.  She seem to be like an octopus mutant regional manager.  Two arms were flipping burgers, while the others limbs were filling the register with quarters, mopping under the slurpee machine and welcoming the others in line behind me.

I’ll admit that my first impulse was a cynical one.  Why would this young lady hustle so hard in what was essentially a glorified fast food gig?  What was the end game?  She was a young, attractive lady that after closer observation seemed way beyond the McNugget set.

I realized almost as fast that she was passionate about her role within her organization.  She recognized the value of each customer interaction to her brand.  While I was looking down at her cynically freshly, out of an M.B.A. program, I realized that her passion was way more valuable to her employer than my pride was to mine.  We would all be wise to be as eager to exceed our responsibilities regardless of whether we are capable of more.

Harvard Business Review discusses an intriguing parallel as it pertains to the jump (and emotional commitment) between the non-profit and for profit worlds.

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4 Year Olds and Brand Recognition

Posted by ellistyle in General Interest, Marketing on January 19, 2010

My son, Will, will be four next month.  He recognizes numbers and letters, but he isn’t one of these prodigy kids that reads Thoreau instead of nap time.  He did do something a few months ago that has stuck out to me; it made me realize how effective big corporate marketing is.  That fact might anger some (particularly depending on the product), but I find it intriguing.  I like effective marketing.  Particularly, when I can use that psychology to justify a frivolous purchase to my wife.

I will provide a bit more context before getting back to Will.  I drink a lot of Mountain Dew.  I know it is bad for me.  I set a very unhealthy example to my family by drinking so much.  It will probably rot my teeth and destroy my organs–BUT it tastes so good!!  I recognize and fully embrace the fact that PepsiCo marketers have snared me; I am likely (happily) addicted.  The point is that Mountain Dew has a presence in our home.

Will and I were driving down the road.  A large beverage delivery truck emblazoned with Pepsi, Pepsi–not Mountain Dew, logos pulled up next to us at a stop light.  I, of course, didn’t take notice.  Will, the four year old, immediately said, “look, Papa, it’s the Mountain Dew truck.”  How would Will know of Mountain Dew’s place in Pepsi’s portfolio?  How did he come to associate a Pepsi logo, to which he is not often exposed, with his father’s drink of choice?  It certainly isn’t a discussion we have ever had.

I think that the answer is fairly clear.  Pepsi casts a broad and effective and subtle net.  The best marketing probably goes unnoticed until the wallet is out and a transaction is about to occur.  Brand recognition is a valuable asset to capture. 

Here is a timely related post from Seth Godin’s blog.

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Tools in my Productivity Flow

Posted by admin in General Interest, GTD, Productivity on January 10, 2010

As part of my (not quite regular) mindsweep, I thought about documenting and illustrating my personal workflow, showing all of the tools that I use. I recognize that such an exercise is moot, and impedes me from checking “real” things from my to do list. The important thing is that I recognize that fact. My intention is to see the flow, so I can address bottlenecks like a lean enterprise process map. Regardless, I created a project file, and my first next action was to list all of the software tools that I use and their interactions. The hardware tool list wasn’t quite as interesting, but I’ll share in another post. I plan to publish the map when I complete it.

Once I began listing the tools that I use, I realized that I have a lot of data resting throughout several clouds. Perhaps I am overly reliant on digital tools media. Here is the list:

Google Mail (INBOX)
Syncs with Mail.app (2 way)
Syncs with Outlook (2 way)
Syncs with iPhone mail.app (2 way)
Google Calendar
Syncs with Calendar.app (2 way)
Syncs with iPhone Calendar.app (2 way)
Syncs with PocketInformant (2 way)
Evernote (INBOX)
Local on MacBook
Portable on Cruzer
Web interface
Outlook (INBOX)
Dropbox
Toodledo
Syncs with with PocketInformant (2 way)
Web Interface
OneNote (INBOX)
Local on Windows 7 (Bootcamp & Parallels)
Local on Work Computer (shared)
Some Notebooks shared via Cruzer
Google Reader
Web Interface
Mobile Web Interface (on iPhone)
Reader Starred items (INBOX)
Shared items post to twitter (via Twitterfeed)
Mint
Syncs to iPhone app
Web Interface
Twitter
Web Interface
Tweetie 2 (on iPhone)
Posts received from Twitterfeed (via Google Starred items)
Twitter stars (INBOX)
Wordpress
Web Interface
iPhone app
Facebook (INBOX)
iPhone app
Linkedin (INBOX)
iPhone app
Ewallet
iPhone app
Syncs with Ewallet on Windows 7
Firefox (main on Mac)
Chrome (Only on Windows 7)
Safari (on Mac occasionally)
Pastefire (added 1/25) it’s nice

Other Services/Software that I use, but less so:

Bit.ly
Google Voice
Gist
Skype
Foursquare
Wave
Plaxo
Delicious
Stumbleupon
Lazyfeed
Feedly

I am a fairly recent mac convert (July of 2009–latest generation until next week when I’ll feel stupid about my investment). OneNote is incredible. I would love to be able to use it more easily without BootCamp or Parallels. I am going to give Winebottler a shot. If it works, my week will be great.

I wonder how this list would compare to yours?

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Google Reader

Posted by admin in General Interest, Productivity on January 10, 2010

99% of the news that I consume is received via Google Reader. I love the medium and the features that the service has accumulated over the 3 or so years that I have used the service.  I use Twitter and recognize that the buzz around news delivery is centered there by the masses.  I guess I tend to use it differently (or more selfishly than most).  I have tried to set it up such that similar stories are delivered to me, but I don’t seem to be able to make Twitter part of my work flow.  RSS and specifically Google Reader are mainstays in my productivity regimen.

At the right, you can peruse news and other articles that I have found interesting.  I hope to be more than an aggregator, but that is probably where the lion’s share of value will come from this site until I find my feet in this forum.  I hope you find something of interest as well.

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