I was in a session with the ‘School of thinking’ founder Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson on Friday. (he co-founded this organization with guru Edward De Bono)
The session was amazing. I wrote down a particular quote which resonated with me:
“The perfect pitch being worked on at your desk can send you out of business. The imperfect pitch being presented to a customer can keep you in business.”
Get out there.
Circa 1992 on MTV across 4 big, no 4 massive TV screens U2 lead singer Bono was asked what ‘Zoo TV’ was all about. His reply:
“It’s about the chaos of choice.” Poignant.
Start ups ought listen to Bono – and avoid the chaos.
I recently had to conduct some rentoid business interstate. The content of the trip is irrelevant, what’s relevant is the context. rentoid is a small startup with a long road ahead. Cashflow is important vital, so we conserve it where possible. This is what successful startups do. We know where they are on the revenue curve – and so we are frugal.
Flights: Cheapest tickets available with no frills budget airline.
Time: First flight in morning, fly back after business hours – last flight. This ensures a full day conversations and maximum value within the trip.
Hire Car: Smallest cheapest car available (Hyundai Getz 3 door to be precise). Low on cost, low on fuel. Only needs to fit two people and two laptops.
Lunch: A burger and fries at a local pub. (at least it had Sydney Harbour views!)
Internet access: Hunt down free wifi area and buy a $3 espresso.
Dinner: Airport Pizza & a soft drink.
Ok, it wasn’t the most glamorous business trip, but the objectives were achieved with the minimum cost, and we had fun. We’ll fly business class, or in a private jet when our business can afford it, and hence it’s deserved.
Start ups out there: Know where you are at. Never let ambition or ego get in front of the revenue reality.
The stuff which really cuts new ground tends to be one of the following:
An awesome new app, widget or blob
Something ultra exclusive, or
Something which opens up a market for the first time.
I Vote For Art fits in the latter category.
Ben Rowe, marketing savant, art appreciator and all round good guy is the brains behind this site. I Vote For Art is a place where you can vote for your favourite art, and buy and sell art too.
The premise: Let people decide which art deserves to bubble up to the top– not the snooty galleries. How many extraordinary artists never get their chance because they never had the contacts or the forum to show their wears?
What I love about this launch;
– Tight category focus – Single Minded Proposition
– Creating a new marketplace for aspiring artists
– Use of social rankings
– Clean easy to navigate web interface
– The Democratization of an ‘old’ category
– You can buy all the cool art on the site
Worth sending to your Artist friends, and let’s face it we’ve all got a couple.
All twitter users know that it’s not the most reliable website out there. At the time of this post, it’s currently ‘down’ and gives you the message below:
2 things:
1. They told us about it before hand.
2. We forgive it, because we love it.
If you’re a ‘me too’, chances are your customers would be less forgiving. If you’re a new killer app, service or widget then the lesson is simple: Innovation is quite forgiving.
Launch now – improve later.
Here’s a few categories or Industries which have been revolutionized by Mass Customization:
T-shirts (Threadless & Neighborhoodies)
TV (Youtube & Joost)
Handbags (Elemental Threads)
Journalism (Blogs & podcasting)
Newspapers (RSS)
Job Seeking (Aggregation & feeds)
Book publishing (Lulu)
Tourism (the web in general)
Luxury goods (fractional ownership)
Music (itunes)
Networking (facebook & social apps)
In fact there’s just too many to mention.
But the real question is this: If it hasn’t hit your industry yet, why not and what are you doing about it?
Here’s a meme from the Cluetrain Manifesto guys. It was written some 9 years ago and still rings true. The predictions herein are still evolving today, and yet some corporations still haven’t got it.
Start ups out there; invest 5 minutes with the ideas below, embrace them and you’ll be well ahead of the game.
[slideshare id=7027&doc=cluetrain-28722&w=425]
