Category: New Business Development

Marian Salzman points out three major trends,
the growth of brand sluts,
making complex things simple,
and increased isolation
as the average person grows wealthier.* 

The third trend I find most interesting. 
Salzman points out that as people have more,
they become more paranoid
about keeping what they have. 
This drives them to withdraw from others,
seeing them as possible threats. 

What does this mean? 

More gated communities. 
More tables for two. 
Less church attendees. 

* May 2007 issue of easyJet Inflight 

Country star Alan Jackson
had to deal with resistance
when he launched his now loved
but then controversial song
“I’ll Go On Loving You”.

He said “I knew the fans would like it
but didn’t know if we could get it
through all the red tape at the radio
to get it to the fans.” 

Every industry has gatekeepers.
These gatekeepers have to be sold on new ideas
before the innovations even have a shot
at being sold to the target market.

In Harvey Mackay’s book,
Beware The Naked Man
Who Offers You His Shirt,
he tells the story of Sam Walton
walking into the messy, disorganized
store of a competitor,
zeroing in on one area
and asking
“how come we’re not doing that?”

The competition may lag you
in sales but
there’s a reason they are
still in business.
That is because they are offering
something you aren’t.

Find out what that something is.

When I moved from Road To Forbes
to my own domain,
I almost reposted
my two years of history.

I told myself that it was
because readers wanted the old posts.

A lie.
All that content is available
with a simple Google search.

No, it was arrogance, pure and simple.
It irked me to be back to being
a baby blogger,
starting all over.

The price for this arrogance
would have been high.
I’d be back in the Google Sandbox
(where I have my own chair)
penalized for duplicate content.

How is that serving my readers?

Easy answer.
It doesn’t.

An accounting friend is interviewing.
She’s gifted (yes in finance)
and companies are wooing her.

One of her criteria for
a prospective employer?

The version of Excel.

She has used the latest version for months
and it simply doesn’t work
(for finance people).

It has all the bells and whistles
(though no flight simulator this time)
and that is the problem.
The fancy Fluent menu bar
interferes rather than enhances.

The product is over developed
and is not longer usable.