Tag Archives: leadership

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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Sometimes

Posted on Friday, 15 April 2022 7:58 am by markpilip

Sometimes we manage to get a little work done. Continue reading →

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Creating a Narrative…

Posted on Thursday, 12 November 2020 7:45 am by markpilip

…to explain your numbers is a fool’s game. The story will usually suffer from logical holes that you’ll have to gloss over. (How many times have you heard “we’ll get to that later” to question about a story you’re being … Continue reading →

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Talent > Systems

Posted on Wednesday, 13 June 2018 8:47 am by markpilip

“Any industry that values systems and processes over talent is an industry in decay.” Wrote Bob Hoffman today, reminding us that the adtech, martech, …aaS, and whatever other stuff we’ve cobbled into a tech stack isn’t our secret sauce. Like … Continue reading →

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Social Media: “Testing Ugly Early”

Posted on Monday, 2 October 2017 9:50 am by markpilip

An old adage of direct response marketing is “test ugly early.” The reason is that ugly disturbs. And that breaks through and triggers response. The other benefit is that ugly is cheap and quick to produce. Ugly, disturbing, and cheap. … 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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Are You Running These Ads? Why?

Posted on Friday, 24 March 2017 4:20 pm by markpilip

Go to your digital marketing team and your advertising agency and see how many of those people are using ad blockers so they can get their work done. You might be surprised and you should be embarrassed. 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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