Romantic innovation

April 24, 2011

At the heart of every innovator, lies a romantic. Innovation is about imagining a world that operates very differently from the one that exists today, and then breaking the “rules” that maintain the current order. To innovate, you have to deeply accept that regardless of what the data say, it can be done. No, I […]

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Never Stop Marketing

April 15, 2011

A long overdue bit of homage to my friend Jeremy. He runs a company called Never Stop Marketing (well, he pretty much is the company). I don’t agree with everything he says and he’d probably slap me if I did. But I like the way he thinks. And I like the way he advocates for […]

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Ejection seat logic

March 30, 2011

Commitment is hard. It’s hard to deliver on commitments when so many other things compete for our time and attention. And, therefore, it’s hard to make commitments. Because we don’t want to bind ourselves to something that, in time, may reveal itself to be less advantageous than the alternatives. Alternatives that we are not aware […]

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Brooks Brothers: Leave me alone!

February 17, 2011

I’ve been getting such a non-stop barrage of emails from Brooks Brothers that I finally have to comment. I signed up for a corporate account with them years ago when I worked at Pfizer. I got maybe a 20% discount through the program. I did buy a few things, not much. But I haven’t purchased […]

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Manage this!

February 17, 2011

We use the word “manage” to describe our actions on all sorts of objects. We manage projects. We manage time. We manage resources. And we manage people. Or do we? Check out the definition of “manage” at the Merriam Webster site. The definitions that seem most relevant are “to handle or direct with a degree […]

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What would your daughter think?

February 16, 2011

Think of your cute little daughter. (If you don’t have one, think of mine. Unless you’re a creepy bastard.) Think of all that you hope and wish for her. Would you want her to work at your company? If not, what will you do to change your company and the culture that you feel would […]

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Your brand is an obligation

February 10, 2011

It is natural for marketers to think of their brands as assets. After all, marketing is a business function and businesses need to make money. They create and nurture brands to do so. But even though this perspective is not wrong, I believe it is counterproductive. I have argued in the past that brands are […]

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What the subways teach us about control

February 5, 2011

[Note: It will probably take you about 3 minutes to read this post. And when you’re finished, you’ll feel happier.] I’ve written several posts about control and how we delude ourselves into thinking that we have control over the universe. Most recently, I speculated that, perhaps, happiness depends on us relinquishing the illusion of control. […]

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Take the card

February 5, 2011

It’s so easy to fall into a massive rut. We’re almost designed for it. We find things we like and we stick with them. Clothing, food, places to visit, music… But how will you ever improve yourself if you don’t even change the little things? If you go to Starbucks, they hand out these little […]

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Be political

February 4, 2011

Nobody likes politics. Or, at least, nobody likes to admit that they like politics. Even politicians are constantly telling us that we have to put politics aside so you know that politics must be bad. It’s easy to be against politics. It’s almost as popular as being against child pornography! So when you decry the […]

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