In an attempt to understand what’s hot in today’s music scene (and chill out after a tough day’s work), I’ve been viewing music videos on Youtube, checked out Billboard’s Hot 100, and listened to the most popular hits on MySpace. What I discovered was pretty fascinating – and perhaps a little shocking – for a mountain tortoise cum geek like me.
Several trends seem to be prevalent in contemporary pop music culture (at least in the US):
“You are not a faceless cog in the machinery of capitalism…” In fact, according to Seth Godin’s latest book Linchpin, you are an “artist who can give good gifts”. Best of all, you don’t need a canvas, a stage, nor a musical instrument to create art.
Beginning with such a delightful premise, Linchpin tackles the age-old issue of career motivation. What’s interesting is that Godin doesn’t just promote entrepreneurialism but rather, a form of intrapreneurialism – one where you as a worker in any circumstance or situation can “make magic”.
Source of image
Have you noticed how businesses, like humans, tend to adopt a herd mentality? Some examples:
– Opening and closing hours of retail shops (normally 10 am to 10 pm, with extended hours only during festive breaks)
If you’re staying in a government built flat and receive the above letter, what would your first reaction be?
A) Oh no, I’ve obviously screwed up and have to pay a fine.
Reading the right diving signals can save your life (courtesy of A Nice Gesture)
What’s the similarity between body language, hour of the day, voice level, “weather”, and tone of email? Give up?
Well, they provide perceptual cues on how somebody is feeling and are useful in determining whether you should “go for the kill”, wait for another opportune moment, or adopt a different strategy altogether.
As I was walking back to work this afternoon, I saw the above bus stop poster by NTUC Income. What’s interesting about the advertisement was that it sought to imbue a social element to an otherwise commercial marketing platform. I suppose its also topical since the opening of the two Integrated Resorts in Singapore last year, and I like how it fused clever copywriting with the main visual.
This isn’t the first time that NTUC Income has rode on the wave of public interest, if you can recall their opportunistic flooding advertisement last June.
What do you think of the above strategy? Would such social messages work for a financial services company?
I was listening to HBR’s Ideacast recently and came across an interesting idea by Booz & Company’s Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi urging companies to “have the discipline to focus intensely on what they do best”. Titled the “Coherence Premium”, the central thesis of Leinwand and Mainardi is that “sustainable, superior returns accrue to companies that focus on what they do best”.
Gaining the Coherence Premium can be done if a company aligns and interlocks internal capabilities (or core competencies ala Hamel and Prahalad) with the right external market position. This can be graphically represented as follows:
Image source
I’ll be flying off to UK for a work trip tomorrow morning, to visit some of their leading art museums and galleries, learn how they run their institutions, and explore collaborative possibilities. There’re quite a lot that we can learn from the Brits who are world leaders in the art, science and business of running museums, art galleries and cultural institutions.
On the cards are an eclectic mix of meetings that we’ll be scheduling with both private and publicly funded mueums and art galeries. They include the world famous Tate Modern which showcases international modern and contemporary art…
Courtesy of News-Poland
Courtesy of Rentoid
In an age where anything and everything is trending towards FREE, companies face many increasingly thorny dilemmas on the issue of pricing. What should one charge in order to make a profitable and sustainable living? How can one stand out from other similar businesses using price as a lever? Is there a trade-off between the number of users/subscribers/fans and actual paying customers?
Answering these questions isn’t easy. One can either choose to go with one’s gut (ala Malcolm Gladwell’s the Law of Thin Slices) or perhaps embrace a more methodical approach.
The world of art, like Pierre Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party, are full of subtle nuances
We’ve all been there before.
You spend weeks working hard on a purportedly kick-ass strategy or a revolutionary new product launch.
