Talk about service! Loose button on suit. No sewing kit in room. Call concierge. Suit picked up, button re-sewed, suit returned … all in 17 minutes. Time: 3:05 A.M. (Yes … A.M.) Hats off to The Grand Hotel in Minneapolis!
Coca-Cola in Jerusalem
After arriving in Israel the other day, one of the first things I saw in a newspaper was a full page ad by the Coca-Cola company thanking the Israeli public for naming Coke as the #1 most recognized brand in the country. My reaction: Who cares?
If you’ve even been within 5 feet of my book, Brand Harmony, you know I think that awareness is the most over-rated branding characteristic. I’m much more interested in the depth of meaning people have for products—and for other things—than I am interested in whether people can recall a product name. Awareness is a much more remote indicator of action than passion is.
Of course people know Coke’s name—duh! But in a place that is full of passions, opinions, rich cultures, debates and, yes, zealotry, it seems silly to waste time even acknowledging that lots of people are aware of Coke. Wouldn’t it be more interesting to know what products are compelling, not just ubiquitous?
I Know a Good Speech …
I know a good speech when I hear one. Namely the Democratic Convention keynote by Illinois Senate candidate Barack Obama (text at obama2004.com). The content may or may not have been to your taste depending on your politics, but as a Work of Art there is not much dispute, I shouldn’t think. Clear and compelling theme. Perfect pitch. Connection with the immediate and distant audience. Humor and self-deprecation. Memorable stories. Phrases that uplift. Timing to die for. Reminds me of Randy Johnson’s “perfect game.” By 11 p.m. pundits of the left and right alike were envisioning Obama as the first African-American in the White House. I can buy that, but I’m just as interested in the prospective date for the first woman in the White House. Will I live to see it?
I Know Bad News …
I know bad news when I read it. I am furious with pols of all stripes that almost 50 million citizens of earth’s richest country have no health insurance. I’m furious that the “medical establishment” continues to focus on fixing broken things (you and me) rather than on prevention and wellness. But all that pales by comparison to my outrage at our biggest and most intimate industry (health care) ignoring the ABCs of quality control. Yesterday’s news included a report from Denver-based HealthGrades, which revealed that between 2000 and 2002 there were 195,000 hospital deaths per year in the U.S. from preventable medical errors, making such errors (the equivalent of 390 jumbo jets a year going down fully loaded) the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S. behind heart disease and cancer. Earlier studies, such as one in 1999 from the Institute of Medicine, had pegged the number at a mere 98,000 per year (only 200 or so jumbos worth). To be sure the math is equivocal and the results controversial (particularly in the med establishment, not so keen on having its foul laundry aired in public), but by any measure the number is a disgrace. Key word: preventable.
Comments included in the Boston Globe report I read:
“This should give you pause when you go to the hospital.”—Dr Kenneth Kizer, National Quality Forum.
“There is little evidence that patient safety has improved in the last five years.”—Dr Samantha Collier
From Tom’s Emails
Some links to stuff—recommended by, written by, sponsored by—those who write to Tom.
Proposed innovation conference in Australia
Simplicity is the Key, a book written by a Tom fan
Vermillion, a WOW website/consultancy
Grainesdechangement, a WOW project for French-speaking readers
Don’t You Just Hate That?, an amusing little book
Competition’s Future
C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy write in their provocative book, The Future of Competition, “Thus, the paradox of the twenty-first-century economy: Consumers have more choices that yield less satisfaction. Top management has more strategic options that yield less value.” Paradox resolved: Fewer, significantly better, choices.
What do you think?
A Whole Lotta Bloggin’
Last week’s BlogOn 2004 conference at UC Berkeley featured more than 50 panelists from social media pioneers to traditional media company execs and venture capitalists. Microsoft and Six Apart detailed how corporations are using social media to improve customer relations. Microsoft is embracing blogging … and it’s successful. Their Channel 9 reports more than 700,000 unique visitors per month.
That’s about 1,000 people per hour, 24 hours a day. Blog On, indeed.
Devolution Evolution
A few decades ago, I wondered what “oldies” we’d be listening to by now. “Whip It” was not among my predictions. Yet, Devo performed to a capacity crowd Friday night in Central Park. The New York Times review offers an explanation: “Before MTV existed, Devo understood the power of building an image through video. And before words like “branding” became music-business staples, Devo had its own logo and mock-corporate image. The band [set] out its own doctrine of de-evolution: that human intelligence is rapidly declining.”
Does the fact that you can still buy an “energy dome” prove their point?
Newcomers Get New Jobs
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert answers the question, “Who’s Getting the New Jobs?” A new study from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University shows that employment growth over the past few years can be almost entirely attributed to new immigrants to the U.S. According to Herbert:
The study does not mean that native-born workers and long-term immigrants are not finding jobs. … But as the study tallied the gains and losses since the end of 2000, it found that new immigrants acquired as many jobs as the other two groups lost, and then some.
In the words of Neil Diamond, “They’re coming to America. Today.”
Wage Gap Walkout
This article in the St. Louis Business Journal attributes the growth in women-owned businesses to the continued wage gap between men and women. According to Brett Miller of The Entrepreneur’s Source, women are starting their own businesses at up to twice the rate of men: “It’s not surprising that women are turning away from the corporate world, where inequality persists, instead of opting for a bright future of an entrepreneur.”