Category Archives: Organization

The danger of low variance

Posted on Tuesday, 27 August 2024 12:03 pm by markpilip

Low variance is crucial in fields like medicine, rocket launches, and pension fund management. However, seeking deviations from the norm is essential for breakthrough results. Instead of resumes or current figures, reverse order test results may reveal team performance. Cultivating variance fosters growth, while a low variance culture hampers progress. Embrace variance for innovation and growth. Continue reading →

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Profit Maximization, Humanity Minimization

Posted on Friday, 15 September 2017 8:28 am by markpilip

Facebook stepped in it again, this time by allowing users of their advertising platform to target users via vile anti-Semitic terms. Do I think the people or the company is anti-Semitic? Of course not. I think the company* is anti-human. … Continue reading →

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Autonomy: Kitchen Cabinet Installers vs. Office Workers

Posted on Monday, 1 May 2017 11:03 am by markpilip

I’m listening to the kitchen cabinet installers upstairs working on my new kitchen and it dawned on me that they have more autonomy than a typical cube- or open-plan dweller in an office. As Dan Pink points out, it’s mastery, … Continue reading →

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Competitors? Meh.

Posted on Thursday, 20 April 2017 10:29 am by markpilip

I saw a post on LinkedIn today about the importance of doing combat with your competitors. That’s misguided and wrong. When you devote resources to something, you are by definition taking them away from something else. Every bit of time … Continue reading →

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An Odd Industry: “Marketing Leadership”

Posted on Monday, 5 December 2016 9:30 am by markpilip

Increasingly, marketing is being taken over by charlatans. An example of this is the so-called “marketing leadership industry” one that is, so far as I can tell, devoid of metrics and accountability. When you see a CMO bragging of their accomplishments in said “industry” you can be sure you’ve been had. Continue reading →

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Marketing dashboards are poor maps of where you’ve been. You need first-hand experience with the terrain you’re now encountering, not more lousy maps. To improve your marketing, don’t hire a cartographer. Hire the hiker who’s seen the terrain up close. … Continue reading →

Posted on Thursday, 3 November 2016 11:45 am by markpilip | Comments Off on Dashboards are Lousy Maps

Building Blockchains of Trust

Posted on Wednesday, 31 December 2014 10:50 am by markpilip

I recommend this good article on how the concept of the blockchain (the root of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin) works as a distributed database, improving trust and removing cost by eliminating the need for third parties. I can imagine using this … Continue reading →

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Stop Looking to Trade Up Your Employees

Posted on Tuesday, 2 December 2014 6:01 am by markpilip

I often hear that companies are  “bowing to investor pressure” when shutting down lines of business or divesting business units, shedding thousands of jobs in the process. Or that investors “demand” outsourcing or offshoring strategies. Nonsense. Nothing could be further … Continue reading →

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Whiffletrees and the OODA Loop

Posted on Friday, 20 June 2014 6:20 am by markpilip

Sounds like a barbershop quartet and a fad from the 1950’s, doesn’t it? As I promised on Tuesday and finally got around to today, here’s the concept of using a whiffletree to manage your multichannel marketing. You might think that with … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Marketing, Organization, Tactics | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Improve Your Multichannel Marketing With a Whiffletree

Posted on Tuesday, 17 June 2014 5:42 pm by markpilip

Some of the digital natives out there might think of us old direct mail guys as being in the buggy whip business. Fair enough. It may be hard to see what mail has to do with retargeting, programmatic media buying … Continue reading →

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