Low Friction Products; Touch-and-go Development

Guess which one of these two products was designed by engineering experts. This is not a trick question. I am being as serious as a heart attack.
For many years, engineers have been designing ever more complex remotes. Technological features have become the dominant factor in product development to the dismay of consumers. So it took for a group of non-expert outsiders to come up with a simple handheld device that would be capable of hundreds of functions; all with just two buttons. The rest, as they say, is history.
The iPod started it's product development life by ignoring all industry expert assumptions and went on to become the first member in a very successful family of products. The resulting Apple products reached every segment of the consumer population; thus shattering any and all sales metrics.
How? By assuming that the experts were wrong and that humans were right, Apple designers went away from the prevailing product development dogmas and focused instead on what any human would find simple to use. Their method went well beyond focusing on ergonomics. The remote to the left has buttons hierarchically located, shaped and colored with the exact goal of achieving great ergonomic performance; or at least that is what the experts that created it thought.
On the other hand, the iPod focuses on the elimination of all friction. Like with any long lasting machine, low operational friction was the key. By being simple to interface with, the iPod is a much more welcoming product that the usual TV remote control. But do we think that remote control companies have learned a lesson? No way! Long established dogmas are hard to leave behind.
This begs the question: how do you do product development? What is your focus?

Why We Buy by Paco Underhill

After a couple of decades of product development experience, it surprises me how often I come across products that ignore friction. These products are difficult to be placed in stores. Their packaging makes it difficult to sell. And, as if things weren't bad enough, users find them difficult to use. In other words, there is friction around every aspect of product supply-chain and performance.
Paco Underhill in 'Why We Buy' covers many of the behavioral nuances that matter most to consumers. While Paco strongly focuses on retail-anthropology, there are many valuable angles to be understood about how users feel and think.
But I guess that I should not be surprised with under-performing products everywhere. Most products are designed based on a consumer need. As long as they solve a problem consumers have, product development engineers completely ignore all else. This might have been enough years ago. Still, today we play by high performance rules.
Think of it within the following context. Let's say that I am on a boat that capsizes away from port. As I try to stay alive, I have access to one of the most effective lifesavers in the industry; the most clever and feature-loaded product. The problem is that it isn't clear how it's supposed to be used. It is so advanced that it requires the equivalent to a college degree before it can be used. So, I die.
Have you noticed that most consumers don't take advantage of most of your product features? Do you wonder why? In a way you are leaving them stranded.

Innovator's Dilemma
by Clayton Christensen

Often the problem is that you confuse progress with evolution. To the many remote control engineers out there, more features is progress. To their customers, it just turns a bad design into something much worse.
First, let's get something clear. If you have a Cash Cow, a product that makes you lots of money with little effort thanks to the fact that it is well established among your customers, don't ever attempt to turn it into a disruptor. You won't be able to. Clayton Christensen, in his fantastic book 'Innovator's Dilemma', clearly demonstrated how companies are trapped by their existing product successes. To then assume that radical change can be made to such Cash Cows would be both, foolish and wasteful. So, identify these Cash Cows as soon as possible and make sure that your best designers create efficient face-lifts and product extensions that can keep the product fresh but without ever killing the golden goose or your development budget. Efficiency is the key. Don't waste time or money fixing your old mistakes. Keep the money coming in and move on.

'Blue Ocean Strategy'
by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim

Meanwhile, look at new unsolved product design opportunities and come up with industry disruptors that demonstrate that you can design low friction products. Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim describe in 'Blue Ocean Strategy' the kind of mindset needed to find new angles that can become competition-proof over the long run. This is important because, the longer that you can play in a new field without competition, the easier it will be to ensure recovering your investment and reaching profitability.
Still, success can be achieved even if your new product faces a low barrier of entry into the category. As long as you stick to low friction designs, your product will retain the advantage.
To create a successful new product or service begin by clearly laying out consumer needs. Keep meetings short. Most product managers force their team members to use their brain's neocortex to come up with smart solutions. They ask them to consciously think. But while the most advanced part of the brain is great with simple decision making, it is horrible with complex, multidimensional problems. Instead, saturate the team with data and end the meeting early. It's a touch-and-go strategy. Meet again the next day and do another touch-and-go session where you give them more data. End the meeting by asking each member to bring sketches of any ideas they may have to the next day's meeting. So far, both meetings have taken less than half an hour in total.
For the next meeting, have each member present any new ideas they came across. This is the third time that you will be passing information in a touch-and-go form. But now, you will ask two people or teams, depending on the size of your group and the importance of the project, to come up with a way to bring all the ideas together. This methodology periodically results in four to five very viable and innovative approaches to address consumer needs.
Next, bring in average people and ask them to identify friction. Ask them to note the areas that are cryptic and difficult to understand or use. Bring the findings to the whole team once again as part of another touch-and-go session. Ask the team members to once again come up with sketches of any ideas they may have. End the meeting quickly by asking two people to put the ideas shown together.
With less that two hours-worth of total meeting time, you should be close to having a new low friction product and a new company culture.
Make sure that packaging, pricing and all supporting marketing materials go through the same process to ensure low friction through out.
As experience grows, low friction products and services will be easier to develop.
The best product development isn't about the company, packaging colors or technological features. No. To do fantastic products, experts must bathe in humility and realize that they know nothing. They must put technology aside and listen to the signals that help us understand how it is that humans function. Successful product development is about frictionless products and services that grant ease access to all with the need. The key phrase among all these thoughts is: to give access.


PS.
I have written a couple of other articles on the books discussed in this article:

Innovator's Dilemma
Clayton Christensen
2013 Top 20 Business Books List (Part II)

Why We Buy
Paco Underhill
2013 Top 20 Business Books List (Part I)

Why We Buy
Paco Underhill
Paco - Shopping and Anthropology

Low Friction Marketing

What does marketing mean to your organization? Is marketing an operational expense or a profit center? The difference is not academic. It can mean leaving thousands or millions of dollars in profits on the table. In fact, marketing should be a leveraged asset to your company; it should transform a small operational investment into a much larger bottom-line improvement, today and overtime.
Exceptional marketing transcends the sum of marketing activities. This is a case where the 'whole' is much larger than the parts. Two companies can easily invest the same time  and money into equivalent marketing activities and still achieve completely different results.
So how to know the difference? Let's start from the beginning. You hire a marketing expert. She looks the part; from fashionable dressing, to accentuated body language, to chic enunciation. All her descriptions rely on colorful images that seem to float in midair. Her marketing strategy is loaded with the latest trends in social media. Needless to say, it's hard to argue against any of it.
But how effective is all that? A little over 12 Years ago, marketing gurus exulted the value of Flash coding. Flash promised to be a fantastic way to make your website stand out over the crowd while making it much more interesting and entertaining. Thankfully, time proved that your online consumers don't have the attention characteristics of a two-year-old. After every website in the planet attempted to maximize the use of Flash, the hyperactive graphics slowed downloading and made them all look commonly noisy and annoying. Rather than standing over the crowd, they all became the crowd.
Today, we have worked our way back into the time-tested method of simplicity. The almost pale looking websites of today are easier to read and navigate. There's a lot to be said about simple and effective messaging.

Yes, time proved that Flash gurus were wrong. This is because time is a ruthless judge. Almost all the must-have marketing trends of yesterday have reverted over time. Even AMC's Pacer was revered by the gurus after its launch. Disgusting indeed. I anticipate that the same reversion to the mean awaits the must-have trends of today. Regression from these extremes is normal.
But how is it possible? Aren't we a society that constantly demands progress? Don't we need marketing to evolves at the same pace as technology? Well, the answer is no. As for the reason, it's a simple one. Humans don't evolve at the same rate as technology. Our bodies have hardly changed for the last million years. While our mental processing has increased, we're doing it with the same old hardware.
Meanwhile, our environment is as noisy as ever. The number of things clamoring for our attention have certainly increased. As a result, it's simple and clear messages that gain our attention.

Think of the fact that tens of thousands of the most brilliant engineers and marketers continue to design ever more complex remote controllers for the many electronics around us. Every extra button promises to open a gate to a new feature. Moreover, consumer electronic manufacturers argued that a dependency on specifications made innovative technology intrinsically male. In other words, a larger number of buttons meant a higher degree of masculinity. Not surprisingly, they were very wrong. Remote control users, male and female, continued to ignore most of such buttons. Average users relied on a few familiar buttons for their operational needs. This meant that, to most people, most evolutionary changes in technology remained unnecessary.
And then something brilliant took place. Apple introduced the iPod. A little electronic gizmo smaller than most remotes. Remarkably, the iPod needed only two buttons to give access to a plethora of features and functions. The rest, as they say, is history. A revolution in consumer acceptance took place. Apple's products, lacking technological superiority over their competitors, became incredibly successful thanks to their simplicity. Contrast this with the fact that NOKIA phones where once the most advanced cell phones in the pre-smartphone era. Still, NOKIA sales in the biggest market in the world, the US, failed against all metrics. Apple's experience demonstrated that a holistic approach to marketing is paramount. It's essential to understand users and their nature. Humans gravitate towards simplicity.
In engineering terms, we're talking about low friction interfaces between the technology and the user. Any engineer will easily understand the idea that low friction is essential when designing a mechanical device. An engine with too many rods, exchangers, transformers and connections will result in excessive friction and a subsequent loss of energy. Aside from being deficient, the engine will inevitably self-destruct.
Generally, low friction is achieved through minimalist designs. In the same way, the conversion from technology to user experience goes through different interfaces that can result in predicted losses and perhaps catastrophic failure. This is what happens when your products and services are rejected by consumers regardless of innovation value.
BOSE makes some of the lowest quality consumer electronics products in the world. Have you ever heard professionals in the industry say "no highs, no lows, must be BOSE?" Still, these guys are masters of low friction selling, marketing and use. As a result, their consumers love BOSE widgets so much that they're willing to certify their affinity by paying the highest price premiums in the industry. Yes, BOSE like Apple know the bottom line value of low friction marketing.
But isn't marketing only about advertising and using social media? Again, no. Opening an Apple device is such an experience that hundreds of people document the process and share it over YouTube for anyone to see. Look it up. This means that properly designed packaging can give so much satisfaction as to create a viral wave. Talk about marketing effectiveness. Two companies create packaging at the same expense. One goes unnoticed while the other increases sales by transforming packaging into a profit center.
The American Marketing Association defines marketing as "creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." They have clearly adopted the holistic view. Notice that their definition is not limited to just creating demand for a product or service. It is also worth considering the fact that they're not saying anything about social media which is today's buzzword everywhere.
Look at any marketing job description today and you will find that every one of them demands search engine optimization (SEO) and social media excellence. Under such conditions, Steve Jobs would never land a marketing job. Both SEO and social media reflect expertise on database and algorithm design. Neither have anything to do with understanding human nature; something that separated Steve Jobs from the rest.
Before our ubiquitous use of smart phones and tablets as personal assistants, Apple had a product called Newton that require a stylus. There's no doubt that the Newton deployed the latest and technology at that time. Still, Steve Jobs discontinued the product because the need for a stylus meant that consumers couldn't use their fingers to operate it. The stylus was an unwelcomed additional step in the user's experience. Steve Jobs waited until touchscreen technology made the iPad and iPhone possible. To create incredible success, Steve Jobs focused on human nature rather than technology.
But can all job listings demanding SEO and social media expertise be wrong? Is it possible that social media is useless? Unfortunately the answer isn't so simple. Yes, most human resource departments are blinded by the social media fad. The noise is deafening in this zero-sum game.
Yet, social media use doesn't have to be a waste of time. Consider one of the most expensive kitchen utensils available in the market: a Bledtech blender. Yes, even something as basic as the time-tested kitchen blender can become exciting enough to go viral. But simply going viral isn't valuable enough. Real value resides in the tens of thousands of consumers who happily opened their wallets to pay a five-times premium for one of these machines. Blendtec created a series of YouTube videos that highlighted the durable nature of their blenders. Through a simply-produced series of videos, viewers can indulge all their destructive desires as anything from cubic zirconia to iPhone's are pulverized by a Blentec blender. Everything becomes liquefied; literally. Even Costco couldn't ignore the videos'effectiveness. In a world of highly commoditized products with perpetually lower profits, Blendtec found a path to extreme profits and a much wider distribution network than would normally be the case for such a niche product. Throughout, Blendtec's advertising costs remain very low by all marketing standards.
And then there's those who spend just to spend. It's said that Coca-Cola knows that 50% of their marketing budget is wasteful. Their problem is that they don't know which 50%. Don't make the same mistake. Many companies treat marketing expenses as pacifiers. Their leaders are emotionally satisfied only after continuing to spend on the same untested marketing efforts. Department managers are giving their marketing budgets with the expectation that they will spend all the funds. This is detrimental to your bottom line and produces no value to society. Everybody loses.
In a nutshell, understand your users, consumers, partners, distributors, buyers, sponsors and even your own salespeople. Focus on their fundamental nature. Make products and services that they all can resonate with. Communicate such resonating values to all of them in a simple and succinct fashion. Reduce all interface frictions. Measure all performance and don't waste your money. Finally, don't follow the herd and deploy low friction marketing. To be remarkable and effective, it's essential that your marketing stays clear of all trend noise and lands precisely over the fundamental human nature.

Doing Business Right

I strongly recommend all employers in Florida become familiar with Gulfstream Goodwill Academy. This incredible institution educates individuals with disabilities. It then readies them for successful integration into the work place.

www.gulfstreamgoodwill.com

The Transition to Life Academy

I know from experience that incorporating programs like these into a business' strategy is both, very rewarding at every level and a fantastic way to increase customer and employee loyalty. In a nutshell, everyone wins. If interested, reach out to Laila Seagle at (561) 259-1000

Finding a Buyer; An Owner's Dilemma

Retirement Planning?

You’ve poured a lifetime of sweat, time, and capital into building your business. You’ve begun thinking about retirement. Your strategy is to sell your company for a good price, settle back, and enjoy a financially secure retirement. But, like many business owners, you’ve made the mistake of assuming this scenario will happen, and you haven’t bothered to make any other retirement plans. 

My advice to you? Be realistic. What are the odds there will be a person showing up at your doors at the right time, with cash in hand and willing to buy your business for a fair price? For thousands of small business owners each year, no buyers ever ring the bell.
Perhaps your business is too specialized or is tied too closely to the owner’s unique personality and skills. Then there is the chance that potential buyers may equate a retirement sale with a distressed opportunity; subsequently making only low-ball offers. Whatever the reasons, many owners find that their company has suddenly become a white elephant that nobody wants.
But here is a thought: select and develop a successor. Prime a replacement; someone who will buy your company when you’re ready to retire. You could even look at your current co-owner. Just be careful if she is about the same age as you. Retirement plans may coincide for the two of you.
The, how about your son or daughter? Are they active in the business? Could you look at a younger key employee? Business owners who successfully groom their own replacements leave nothing to chance. They realize that there’s no room for error at the point of retirement.
Be cautious nonetheless; make sure your heir apparent is the right person in terms of temperament, personality, competence, and personal goals.

Nurture a buyer, write a buy-sell agreement
and fund the deal with insurance. That simple!

But don't look for yourself. Being compatible does not mean being identical. You are not looking for a twin but for a potential leader who can do things as well as you, but differently.
Set up a probation period so you can terminate the relationship if you find that this person will not work out. During that period, keep everything as informal as possible; strictly verbal. Even when you go to a formal agreement, make sure it contains a termination provision. It's important to reduce your risk's profile while you engage the search.
Offer incentives to ensure that your replacement stays until the baton is passed. An ambitious successor needs and deserves gradually increasing authority and benefits. Options should include deferred compensation or the opportunity to acquire partial ownership prior to your retirement. This provides both parties with something to win by sticking to the agreement, and something to lose if it falls apart.
Create a buy-sell agreement. With the help of your attorney, lock in who does and gets what, spelling out all details and caveats, including how to establish the final valuation of the business. This formal agreement protects everybody.
Build in a funding mechanism. This is of crucial as funding is why most deals fall through despite even the best buy-sell agreement terms. Any plan is worthless without the money.
Under one option, the successor may be able to purchase the company from ongoing profits. Other options include setting up a sinking fund or allowing the successor to simply borrow the money. These options may work but they leave much to chance.

Life insurance is a flexible financial
instrument available to any business owner

Instead, consider a funding vehicle that also protects your family in the event of your disability or premature death, such as life and disability income insurance. You would be surprised what can be done with a properly structured life insurance policy. Your insurance professional or your independent professional advisers can work with you to help you develop a sound business strategy.
Alternatively, have a Plan B. As a business owner, you know that very few things go exactly as planned. What if your business hits tough times or your successor dies, becomes disabled, or leaves because of a personality conflict? Or what if there simply is no heir apparent waiting in the wings? Sometimes, your only alternative may be to dissolve the business. Be ready. It is after all the route most often taken.
Now that, if you dislike the idea of fading your business away, then you have no alternative but to begin mapping out your retirement strategy today. What are you waiting for?

Great MIT Research - Free Access for a Limited Time

MIT Sloan

MIT is giving free access to a few of their incredibly valuable research papers to MIT Sloan Executives. It goes without saying that I feel that MIT is the absolute best school in the world. MIT researchers are the only ones that balance the art of business with the rigidity of data. I loved my marketing class because of this exact thing. As a result, their research is essential for all managers, from the middle to the top.
Make note of the fact that the availability is for a limited time. So hurry.
Below are the papers available. Otherwise follow the general link.


Articles by Deborah Ancona
Deborah Ancona is Professor of Organization Studies at MIT Sloan and Faculty Director of the MIT Leadership Center. She teaches in Transforming Your Leadership Strategy and the Advanced Management Program (AMP).
The Comparative Advantage of X-Teams

Articles by Erik Brynjolfsson
Erik Brynjolfsson is Professor of Information Technology and Director of The MIT Center for Digital Business. He teaches in Big Data 4Dx (online); Big Data: Making Complex Things Simpler; and Future of Manufacturing.
Winning the Race With Ever-Smarter Machines
Competing in the Age of Omnichannel Retailing
What the GDP Gets Wrong (Why Managers Should Care)

Articles by Steven Eppinger
Steven Eppinger is Professor of Management Science and Engineering Systems and Co-Director of the System Design and Management Program. He teaches in Managing Complex Technical Projectsand Systematic Innovation of Products, Processes, and Services.
How Sustainability Fuels Design Innovation

Articles by Tom Kochan
Tom Kochan is Professor of Work and Employment Research and Engineering Systems and Co-Director of MIT Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research. He teaches in Strategies for Sustainable Business.
The Management Lessons of a Beleaguered Industry
Taking the High Road

MIT Executive MBA

Articles by Donald Lessard
Donald Lessard is Professor of Global Economics and Management and Professor of Engineering Systems. He teaches in Strategy in a Global World.
Building Your Company’s Capabilities Through Global Expansion

Articles by Fiona Murray
Fiona Murray is Associate Dean for Innovation. She is also Faculty Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. She teaches in the Entrepreneurship Development Program and the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP).
Spurring Innovation Through Competitions

Articles by Alex Pentland
Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland is the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, Director of Human Dynamics Lab, and Director of the MIT Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program. He teaches in Big Data 4Dx (online); Big Data: Making Complex Things Simpler; and Leading Change in Complex Organizations.
Understanding ‘Honest Signals’ in Business
Can High-Frequency Trading Drive the Stock Market Off a Cliff?

Articles by Douglas Ready
Douglas Ready is Senior Lecturer in Organization Effectiveness. He teaches in the new program,Building Game-Changing Organizations: Aligning Purpose, Performance, and People.
Enabling Bold Visions
Leading at the Enterprise Level
Why Leadership-Development Efforts Fail

Articles by Jeanne Ross
Jeanne Ross is Director and Principal Research Scientist at MIT Sloan’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR). She teaches in Essential IT for Non-IT Executives and Revitalizing Your Digital Business Model.
Finding Value in the Information Explosion

Articles by José Santos
José F.P. dos Santos is Visiting Professor at MIT Sloan and Professor at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. He teaches in Strategy in a Global World.
Is Your Innovation Process Global?

Articles by Peter Senge
Peter Senge is Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Sustainability at MIT Sloan.
Collaborating for Systemic Change
Innovating Our Way to the Next Industrial Revolution

Articles by/featuring David Simchi-Levi
David Simchi-Levi is Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT. He teaches in Future of Manufacturing and Supply Chain Strategy and Management.
Is It Time to Rethink Your Manufacturing Strategy?
Your Next Supply Chain
When One Size Does Not Fit All

Articles by John Sterman
John Sterman is Professor of System Dynamics and Engineering Systems and Director of the MIT System Dynamics Group. He teaches in Business Dynamics: MIT's Approach to Diagnosing and Solving Complex Business Problems; Leading Change in Complex Organizations; Strategies for Sustainable Business; and Understanding and Solving Complex Business Problems.
What the Future May Bring

Articles by Scott Stern
Scott Stern is the School of Management Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management Group at MIT Sloan. He teaches in theMIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP).
Innovation: Location Matters

How Companies Can Avoid a
Midlife Crisis by Donald Sull

Articles by/featuring Donald Sull
Donald Sull is Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan. He teaches in the new program, Building Game-Changing Organizations: Aligning Purpose, Performance, and People.
How Companies Can Avoid a Midlife Crisis
Closing the Gap Between Strategy and Execution
Using Commitments to Manage Across Units

Articles by Catherine Tucker
Catherine Tucker is the Mark Hyman Jr. Career Development Professor and Associate Professor of Marketing at MIT Sloan. She teaches in the Global Executive Academy; Strategic Marketing for the Technical Executive; Systematic Innovation of Products, Processes, and Services; and theEntrepreneurship Development Program.
Why Managing Consumer Privacy Can Be an Opportunity

Articles by/featuring Eric von Hippel
Eric von Hippel is Professor of Management of Innovation and Engineering Systems and the founder of the Entrepreneurship Program at MIT. He teaches in Building, Leading, and Sustaining the Innovative Organization and the Global Executive Academy.
The User Innovation Revolution
The Age of the Consumer-Innovator
Innovation by User Communities: Learning From Open-Source Software
Innovation Process Benefits: The Journey as Reward

The Benefits of Combining
Data With Empathy

Articles by Peter Weill
Peter Weill is Chairman of the Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) and MIT Sloan Senior Research Scientist. He teaches in Essential IT for Non-IT Executives and Revitalizing your Digital Business Model.
The Benefits of Combining Data With Empathy
The Business Models Investors Prefer

Articles by Peter Weill & Stephanie Woerner
Stephanie Woerner is Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research. She teaches in Revitalizing your Digital Business Model.
Optimizing Your Digital Business Model

Articles by Ezra Zuckerman
Ezra Zuckerman is Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management and Chair of the MIT Sloan PhD Program. He teaches in Developing and Managing a Successful Technology and Product Strategy and the Advanced Management Program (AMP).
Improving Capabilities Through Industry Peer Networks

Increase Your Creativity - A Tail of Failed Promises

THIS WILL MAKE YOU CREATIVE. Well, at least that is what Increase Your Creativity by Kelly Howell seems to promise. From its title, one would think that this recording shares the hidden secrets of the art of being creative. Unfortunately, this was not to be.
As a voracious business information consumer, I often supplement hard books with audio books. In general, I find audio books to be just as good as those of the regular page-turning kind with the added benefit that they can be consumed while driving. Thus, I do not think twice about buying anything from the business or self-help section in the bookstore in either form. Boy, was I disappointed this time.
As I begun to play what I thought was an audio book, it took me several minutes to get past the shock that the narrator was notably absent. After I realized that the terrible introductory music that's generally used to start audio books was in this case the main course, I was dumbfounded.
As someone who has been extensively linked to music at both personal and professional levels, it is very difficult for me to get past the point that the long notes contained in this recording would have a different impact on my brain than music from an improvised Jazz quintet, for example.
How was I to get to a creative state? For one, I have always found it much easier to day dream or enter a state of trance when listening to "real' instruments. Hearing synthesized or fake music, which is what this recording packs, is rather distracting to me.
Moreover, it is my empirical conclusion that tonality is inversely related to the state of detachment from reality when listening to music. Let me explain.
There is a fantastic saxophone quartet from San Francisco, California called Rova. All their music is completely improvised. While the musicians start and end together, not one of them follows any other during the song. They all fall on their own unrecognizable dissonance as each saxophone jumps from note to note. To me, Rova defines cacophony.
Yet, listening to their music live immediately takes me into LALA land. Endorphins kick in so rapidly that I begin to drift into a day dream almost as soon as they start playing.

In a way, their atonality is unpleasant. Yet, my subjective visceral response is fantastically vivid. It would seem as if the disorderly nature of my body's activity would resonate with the unlistenable noises they make. The experience is pleasurable in a odd sort of way.
On the other hand, Increase Your Creativity has a very tonal, albeit slow; a character that immediately annoyed me. It was not engaging at all. I know that it could be argued that it is not my kind of music. Nonetheless, I remain with the impression that the recording would exclusively provide its alleged benefits of boosting creativity on those who have just consumed illicit drugs. But for someone in the hyper aware state I live in, the recording seems like pure hype. I hated it as much as I can't stand people who waste their life consuming such drugs.
If this recording is a serious attempt at creating a tool that delivers its stated promise, I certainly doubt it. While I am happy being the statistical outlier, I revert to feeling that the recording is rather a piece of garbage. I would instead suggest that you enrich your collection of music and that you invest on a very good audio system. In that way, if your creativity doesn't improve along the way, you would at least enjoy the ride.

Must Be Bose

On a separate note and while I am on my ass-kicking mode, I will end by suggesting to stay away from Bose. In the professional audio world, everybody has a saying: "No highs, no lows, must be Bose". To insiders, Bose is for the ignorant wealthy who prefers to impress their friends over listening to real music. There, I said it. I have knocked two ugly birds with one post.




Book Title: Increase Creativity
Book Subtitle: Ignite Imagination and Insight
Author: Kelly Howell
Publisher: Brain Sync
ISBN: 978-1881451501

Not Just a Day in 1776

Happy birthday America!
Today, I would like to share a short but important list of interconnected thoughts with you:

Risk-adjusted and Leveraged Asymmetry

• To be competitive, you must recruit the best knowledge workers available.
• Knowledge workers are hired with one and only one goal in mind: to make better decisions. 
• Their decisions should create asymmetric outcomes for the company where the upside potential is much greater than the downside.
• This will then result in low risk-adjusted but highly leveraged results; my kind of thing.

I believe it appropriate to celebrate the country's birthday while calling attention to the fact that knowledge workers are the future of our nation. From intelligence management by every soldier defending our land, to the people that will innovate processes and best practices of the future, our national productivity will remain high thanks to them. Remember that while employee count and capital investment add to our national GDP, only innovation is a multiplier of it. Hurray for logarithmic outcomes!

Happy Fourth of July America

Paco - Shopping and Anthropology

Avoid the Butt-brush and raise profits with science. Paco Underhill's advise is coveted all around the world. Working with the best brands, best retailers and best restaurants, Paco has touched your life in a way that is effective, yet hard to notice. That is, after all, what an Anthropologist does. He observes, records and concludes without interfering with his subjects. Paco is known as the father of Retail Anthropology.

Paco Underhill

It would be odd to think that anthropology, a seemingly boring science, could have any impact on the design of the most exciting new products in the market today. Nonetheless, this is exactly what's happening. After discovering Paco's work, it all just made sense to me about 15 years ago.
Starting as a typical anthropologist doing work at Central Park for the city of New York, Paco serendipitously took his academic education and started recording the behavior of music shoppers. The rest, as they say, is history.
All marketing guru's take an artistic approach. There is no science to what they do; it is just a feeling of what seems right. They develop a hunch, which is then tested with your customers without any real certainty of success.

Paco, on the other hand, makes recommendations that have already been proven to work. Why? Because they follow human behavior rather than fads. Paco's team has documented more shoppers in more countries than anyone else. His methodology is based on the fact that humans have changed very little over thousands of decades. Paco's goal is to improve the retail experience through solutions that are both predictably superior and repeatably effective. That you aren't aware of his work speaks bundles of the secrecy with which companies guard what he does for them.
The kind of science that he deploys is not rigid, fake or unnatural. On the contrary, Paco adds value to the existing environment by making it look and feel much more natural and fluid. If consumers felt that they were being trapped by a scientific experiment while doing something as personal as shopping, they would just exit the store. But consumers respond well to Paco's creative solutions because these resonate with the human nature.

Subway Napkins

Have you noticed that fast food restaurants try to keep their tables free from clutter. There are no table tents offering the latest specials, for example. This means that these restaurants miss the opportunity to sell additional products or services to customers who spend more than a few minutes eating alone and without anything to look at. But Paco found a solution. While helping Subway restaurants', he realized that there was a great opportunity to push Subway's main marketing message. So he used the company's napkins to highlight the nutritional values of their sandwiches. The solution was clever and it has become part of the daily Subway experience.
Placing aspirins in the most easily accessible shelve, perhaps near the entrance of the pharmacy, would seem to make sense. Pain medications are an important category. Moreover, these products see strong consumption by the elder; people who generally appreciate ease of access. But Paco knows better. Displaying aspirins in such a main isle will place their users right on the path of fast walking teenagers who rush towards the back of the store to grab the latest energy super drink; resulting in the dreaded Butt-brush. Shoppers, specially the elder and females, hate the Butt-brush. No matter how strong their need for pain relief may be, getting Butt-brushed will force them to shop elsewhere. The data corroborates with the thesis that these are terrible areas for these types of products.

Why We Buy by Paco Underhill

Paco knows precisely how many minutes will a customer spend looking at a pair of jeans, how often she will consider their price, how many pairs she will try each visit, which way she will navigate the store, and how many times she will experience frustration along the way. His body of data is uniquely robust.
If you are a retailer, a product manager, a manufacturer of consumer products, a packaging designer, or a commercial interior designer, you are missing your biggest tool. You must read his books; starting with Why we buy, The Science of Shopping. This book sets the foundation needed to internalize the concepts. There are no narratives to waste page space; Paco goes to the point. He teaches how to understand consumers and shares the source for his conclusions.
He knows shoppers so well that he is also referred to as a environmental psychologist.
If you are serious about your work and have an open mind to be proven wrong, make sure that you and your team start following Paco today.

Book Title: Why We Buy
Book Subtitle: The Science of Shopping
Author: Paco Underhill
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 978-1416595243

Creativity, Sex and Business Cards

Gapingvoid

Ignore Everybody, the book with a sexually deprived personality, would have been more appropriately titled Hear Me Out; as in listen to Hugh MacLeod, the author. Ignoring everybody is only a fraction of the advice given.
Hugh, a cartoonist and Chief Creative Officer at Gapingvoid, describes the creativity drivers that have helped him turn a crazy idea into a well rounded business.
Art-on-a-business-card isn't going to get its own isle at your local Michael's store any time soon. Still, the compact and portable medium has given Hugh a different perspective on life and business. Perhaps his ideas can also benefit your team.
Despite being a short book, it somehow manages to feel a bit fragmented. It reads like an appliance instructions booklet more than the usual narrative that most people like. If you are not as geeky as I am, this may be an issue for you.
Another caveat is that the book should probably be rated R for adults only. I am no prude, but the repeated sexual references created a meaning that went far beyond what each clever phrase suggests. "Desperate" is what it seemed. It was as if the author felt the need to create shock to bring the book to life.

Ignore Everybody

The irony is that the book is actually very good; the value of its content stands on its own. I felt that the ideas are realistic and on target.
The book goes beyond just talking about how to get into a creative state of mind and touches factors like hard work.
My niece is very creative. She is also an early teenager. I bought the book with the intention of sharing it with her. I hoped that it would help her channel her great ideas. But I now know that I will have to wait about a decade before uncle Alberto gives her this book; which is a real shame.
Even within the professional environment, I am not sure that I could give the book to just any employee. The last thing I would want is a frivolous charge of a sexual-related offense for something that started with the intent to get employees to a higher level of creative productivity. Yikes.
Your situation may be different; making the book a great read for you. In any case, make sure to at least review Hugh's business website.



Book Title: Ignore Everybody
Book Subtitle: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity
Author: Hugh MacLeod
Publisher: Penguin Books LTD.
ISBN: 159184259X

Diploma Reimbursement; Expense, Not Asset

What's more important, the diploma or the knowledge? Out of these two, which do you think can be monetized by your business? Which one can result in higher productivity?
Placing too much emphasis on the paper is a cultural failure of business. That most businesses place such premium is evident after a cursory review of any job post. Emphasis is given to diplomas over anything else.

LinkedIn

Even education reimbursement benefits offered to employees focus on the document rather than the knowledge. As long as the employee comes back with a paper in hand, the company pays its part of the tuition cost.
There is no one in human resources who even cares to match the benefits paid by the company to increases in productivity by the employee. If someone did, they would make sure to find a way to improve the ROI of these expenses. They would council employees on the kind of education that would create measurable value to employee and company alike. And maybe, they would find alternatives at no cost; thus creating an asset without an offsetting liability. More on this later.

Harvard Law Diploma

Diplomas cost lots of money; especially considering today's high college tuition inflation. Yet, these certificates offer no guarantee of the type or level of knowledge. While a business degree creates the impression of competence, it is not uncommon to find people who graduated from reputable business schools but lack all understanding of business topics. Ask them about accounting and they will struggle identifying what's an asset or a liability. Talk to them about pricing and they will say to remember demand graphs but are not sure how to interpret them. Lots of money was sunk into their school attendance but very little value can be extracted from it.
Superior knowledge, on the other hand, can be easily monetized because it improves employee productivity. It is well documented that higher productivity across all businesses comes first from innovation, then from experience and last from capital spending. This insight debunks the myth that companies must incur high capital expenditures in order to succeed. Professor Jeremy Siegel from the Wharton school of business has done research that shows how, opposite to general belief, companies that spend more than their peers in capital equipment lag behind their industry. This phenomena, which grants higher importance to knowledge has been confirmed even for firms outside the US.
Peter Drucker, arguably the father of business management, identified that we live in the era of the knowledge worker, a term which he coined. Well, recalling the drivers of productivity described above, both innovation and experience are knowledge based. To get an idea of the power of knowledge as a productivity tool one must only look at the distribution of profits of Apple products. Around 80% of all profits go to 10% to 20% of employees. The rest of the employees get the other 20% of profits. Do you want to venture a guess which are the employees that get the bulk of the profits? Within Apple, each California employee produces on average 15 times more value for the company than employees in Asia. What's the difference? Knowledge. California employees get paid for what they know and for how they apply it when making important decisions. Employees in Asia are limited to what they can produce with their hands. In this case, skill is important but not as important as the specialized knowledge of the California engineers.

Apple's Corporate Office

Higher productivity, as in the case of Apple, creates a competitive advantage that subsequently results in higher profits. In today's competitive environment, there is absolutely no reason why  people should stop growing intellectually. In fact, I strongly believe that in order to stay competitive, employees and management will now have to periodically attend the equivalent of a college degree every 10 years; something that could get very expensive if the company is to pay the bill.
Let's say that your business requires that your HR personnel learn about the Affordable Care Act; also known as Obama Care. You could bring in a payroll services supplier like Paychex. They could deliver a superficial power point presentation to HR. In my experience, most of these presentations serve only the purpose of making you feel like your vendors are working for you. Now that what really matters to you is that you raise the level of expertise within your team in such as way that you can be sure to not violate one of the many regulations; something that could cost the company a fortune.
Another alternative would be to have the members of HR attend the University of Pennsylvania, the ivy league school where people like Donald Trump graduated from. Can you even imagine all the traveling expenses and the tuition costs? How about all the time away from work?
Next, let's then say that you decide to send your sales team to Northwestern University to take the Content Strategy for Professionals: Engaging Audiences for Your Organization course. No doubt that better presentations will go a long way to improve closing rates.

CUHK website

Once on a roll, you send your sourcing team to learn more about the Yuan. More specifically, the class is called The Role of Renminbi (RMB) in the International Monetary System. The caveat this time is that they will have to attend the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Good luck getting daily flight back and forth.
And how much will all the education cost you company? Nothing; it's all free.
And just in case that your team still has a hard time giving up their fixation for the paper, these schools will grant a diploma for successful completion of every course and the corresponding tests.
Today, thanks to Coursera, your employees can attend the best universities in the world completely free and on their own schedule. Classes are available on-demand through the magic of the world wide wed. Your HR people can chose between many options for the course that's immediately most meaningful to the employee. There are general courses as well as programs on subjects at the forefront of technology.
I recently took Model Thinking at the University of Michigan. The course addressed all sorts of modeling techniques and software packages which are relevant to many fields. About 25,000 students attended the class with me. Sadly, more foreign students take advantage of this free education while Americans are notably disengaged.
As a manager, if you agree with the value of the education over that of the diploma, then you have to understand that the problem is cultural and that solutions must be driven from the top. Change the way your company hires. De-emphasize diplomas while placing more value on relevant knowledge that can be monetized right away. Change your education reimbursement program to one that rewards people for applying newly gained knowledge to their job. Motivate people to learn what they can practice immediately. Form study groups that can turn water-cooler talk into something productive for the company.
Unfortunately, this change will take quite a bit of time. We are dealing with entrenched beliefs, after all.  Thankfully, the exponential improvements resulting from your efforts will be measurable and huge.

Coursera

PS: Following is a list of the Business topics available in English through Coursera:

Yale University	Financial Markets
University of Pennsylvania	The Global Business of Sports
University of Pennsylvania	An Introduction to Operations Management
University of Pennsylvania	An Introduction to Financial Accounting
University of Pennsylvania	Principles of Microeconomics
University of Pennsylvania	Corporate Finance
University of Pennsylvania	Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society
University of Pennsylvania	Gamification
University of Pennsylvania	Health Policy and the Affordable Care Act
Princeton University	Networks Illustrated: Principles without Calculus
Princeton University	Networks: Friends, Money, and Bytes
Stanford University	Organizational Analysis
Stanford University	Social and Economic Networks: Models and Analysis
Stanford University	Startup Engineering
Stanford University	Game Theory
Duke University	Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Duke University	A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior
Northwestern University	Understanding Media by Understanding Google
Northwestern University	Law and the Entrepreneur
Northwestern University	Engaging Audiences for Your Organization
California Institute of Technology	Principles of Economics for Scientists
Case Western Reserve University	Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence
Columbia University	Financial Engineering and Risk Management
Georgia Institute of Technology	Computational Investing, Part I
IE Business School	Critical Perspectives on Management
IE Business School	Understanding economic policymaking
Johns Hopkins University	Principles of Obesity Economics
Universität München (LMU)	Competitive Strategy
Pennsylvania State University	Creativity, Innovation, and Change
The Chinese University of Hong Kong	The Role of Renminbi (RMB) in International Monetary System
University of California, Irvine	Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning
University of California, San Francisco	Nutrition for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
University of Florida	Economic Issues, Food & You
University of Florida	Sustainable Agricultural Land Management
University of Geneva	International Organizations Management
University of Illinois Champaign	Microeconomics Principles
University of Maryland, College Park	Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies
University of Maryland, College Park	Surviving Disruptive Technologies
University of Melbourne	Climate Change
University of Melbourne	Principles of Macroeconomics
University of Melbourne	Generating the Wealth of Nations
University of Michigan	Introduction to Finance
University of Michigan	Model Thinking
University of Minnesota	Sustainability of Food Systems: A Global Cycle Perspective
University of Virginia	New Models of Business in Society
University of Virginia	Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Private Businesses I
University of Virginia	Foundations of Business Strategy
University of Virginia	Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Private Businesses II
University of Virginia	Design Thinking for Business Innovation
University of Washington	Introduction to Computational Finance and Econometrics
University of Washington	Introduction to Public Speaking
University of Wisconsin–Madison	Markets with Frictions
Vanderbilt University	Leading Strategic Innovation in Organizations
Wesleyan University	Social Psychology
Wesleyan University	Property and Liability: An Introduction to Law and Economics