Producers Don’t Work For Public Companies?

Posted on Wednesday, 2 January 2013 8:29 am by markpilip

Irving Azoff is a “producer” in the true sense of the word–an individual that can create a vision, rally talented people behind it, and execute. And now he’s left Live Nation to go back out again on his own.

Why leave what was, by all accounts, a pretty good gig as Chairman? As Azoff puts it in his interview with Billboard’s Ray Waddell, he was sick of the nonsense associated with public companies. Too much time spent worrying about short-term investors, crazy SEC regulations and so forth.

Not enough time actually getting things done.

Azoff will, once again, change how the music industry works. Live Nation and Ticketmaster should be very afraid, non-compete or not.

It made me think about where the real movers and shakers are. Not inside your company fighting bureaucracy to change the Powerpoint template used to present their idea to some “investment committee.” They’re out there rallying people behind them to create something new and better and leading movements that will destabilize your business.

Who’s the “producer” out there your company is most afraid of? And why haven’t you been able to get your company to follow his or vision and rally behind the better idea? (That’s why you’re afraid of them, after all–their idea is better than anything your “investment committee” could find the guts to greenlight.)

More importantly, why aren’t you out there with them and changing the world? Why have you elected to stay inside your company?

Happy New Year!

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The Best $2 Kimpton Could Spend

Posted on Friday, 14 December 2012 11:28 am by markpilip
A note from my housekeeper.

A note from my housekeeper.

I’ve been in Boston and staying at the Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge. It’s a terrific hotel and the rates for Boston aren’t too bad.

I’ve been impressed with the Marlowe and Kimpton hotels because of two simple things they did.

The first was on the wi-fi access page. I could have elected to pay $11.95 for daily access. But they also gave the option of free use if I just signed up for the Kimpton loyalty club. The registration path was very short and non-obtrusive and it was easy to avoid getting spammed by them.  Well done.

In registering, I realized that I was already a member of the loyalty club. A couple of quick clicks and I updated my preferences. And the wi-fi is very fast!

What Kimpton really did right is shown in the note I found above. Next to it was a plate with an apple, an orange and some strawberries along with two bottles of water. On seeing that, the first thought that ran through my head was “I need to stay in Kimpton hotels more often.”

Total cost to Kimpton to put their brand at top of mind above all other hotel brands? About $2 and a bit of effort.

Takeaway: What did your company do today to embed your brand at top of mind with your customers? Or did you just spray and pray?

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Share, Don’t Tell

Posted on Friday, 2 November 2012 9:11 am by markpilip

If you tell me what you have to sell, I’ll ignore you.

There are many like you shouting at me all day.

If you remind me what I should do, I’ll resent you.

When you question my judgement, you question my being.

If you share your beliefs with me, I’ll listen.

When I know what you feel, we may connect emotionally.

Will you share today?

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Do The Best You Can, Not The Best

Posted on Wednesday, 17 October 2012 8:21 am by markpilip

When we agonize over everything to try to make it “the best” we fool ourselves. There’s no such thing.

We are just people and can’t, by definition by perfect and “the best.”  When we understand the constraints–time, money, people, technology–and then optimize that mix, we’ve done the best we can.

What’s the difference? When we do the best we can, we can ship and see how the market reacts. Which beats trying to achieve a theoretical state we’ll never achieve.

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What “They” Want Or Think Doesn’t Matter

Posted on Monday, 8 October 2012 5:01 am by markpilip

On his deathbed Steve Jobs told Tim Cook not to worry about what he would do, but instead do what was right for Apple, or so the story goes. A great piece of advice.

Now that Steve is dead, what he would or wouldn’t do isn’t knowable. Trying to guess is a Ouija board exercise in futility. The same thing happens when you spend a lot of time thinking about what your customers say they want or what your investors think.

Sacrilege?

Not at all. Much like channeling Steve Jobs from beyond the grave, predicting what any individual stakeholder will do at any point in time is almost impossible. All the market research in the market or ever-bigger Big Data datasets won’t help.

The only thing you can control is what you and your company does. If you know what you believe, then you’ll know the right things to do. And those customers, stakeholders, and employees who believe as you believe will continue to join in your vision for the future. Those that don’t, won’t travel that road with you. And you have to be OK with that.

How do you know, however, if your vision is commercially viable? After all, you are in business to turn a profit. The answer is to interact with the market early and often, in exchange for money. It’s only then that you’ll know if the price, performance, and features are acceptable.

Takeaway: Don’t worry so much about what “they” want. Understand your beliefs, bring them to life and see who agrees.

RIP Steve Jobs.

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Recruit The Exceptional

Posted on Sunday, 7 October 2012 2:33 pm by markpilip

Our leadership skills aren’t as special as we think. We can’t make average talent outstanding. Spend less time managing the average and more time talking with and recruiting the exceptional. Talent and grit win.

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Communications “Real Housewives” Style

Posted on Monday, 1 October 2012 8:21 am by markpilip

It’s Monday morning and the time when communications professionals around the world are answering urgent executive requests on:

  • Why that tweet (that nobody cares about) was created?
  • Why that blog post (that nobody cares about) got your corporate mission wrong?
  • Why that headline (that nobody cares about) was shortened a bit much?

From the tone of the email and urgent phone calls whizzing around now, you’d think that the average company had a communications weekend on a par with the Apple Maps launch. Your company didn’t.

Yet many corporate executives followup on the weekend communications activity like they’re contestants in a Real Housewives reality TV show. Every perceived slight is blown out of proportion, there’s a lot of genteel screaming via email, and the ones who get the brunt of it are the poor communications professionals who are just doing their jobs.

Remember that there’s only one person who reads all your press.  That’s you.

Executives, take a deep breath and go back to making things that people care about. The press will take care of itself and you don’t want to look like some foolish, orange, never-will-be.

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Vision’s All You’ve Got

Posted on Thursday, 13 September 2012 8:40 am by markpilip

You might hire the smartest data scientists available. You might develop a product that has benefits that push all the user buttons. You might price that product perfectly. You might distribute it perfectly. You might create the most clever campaign to promote it.

And you might be successful. But everything you just did will be noticed by the competition. They can and will copy it. They will make it better, cheaper and faster.

The only thing that differentiates you is your vision. Do you have one?

Posted in Branding, Philosophy, Product Development | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

9-11

Posted on Tuesday, 11 September 2012 7:36 am by markpilip

Eleven years ago today, almost 3,000 people were murdered. One was my friend and Utica College classmate Margaret Echtermann. She was likable, smart and a lot of fun.  She was enjoying success in her career and personal life when it abruptly ended.

We recently caught and punished the ringleader. But that won’t bring back Margaret or any of the others. So we must always remember our loss and remain vigilant.

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Design Your Community

Posted on Monday, 13 August 2012 10:57 am by markpilip

Andrew Chen reminds us this morning to design our community along with our product. This design, as design thinking teaches, should be thoughtful and iterative.

The design should not be accidental. Because accidental design is what gets us a customer or user base that looks like the famous Indian telephone pole.

 

 

Customers on the pole will be fickle, prone to churn, and will be constantly hammering you on price or terms. Everything, from lead generation to contract negotiations to service, will be a chore.

Design your customer or user community deliberately. Or have it designed accidentally for you. The choice and the consequences are yours.

 

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