Week of August 17, 2009

I really like a quote from the new book Who's Got Your Back by Keith Ferrazzi -- The guy who wrote Never Eat Alone -- Here's the quote: "In the information age, success is less about efficiency than effectiveness; that is, the ability to get the right things done, rather than just the ability to do things right." In other words, you can follow all the rules but still success will get past you.

Life and business are fluid and change like the course of a river. Your job is to make sure you accurately predict where the river is going rather than where it has been.

Make sure you don't fall into the trap of following all the rules and missing the obvious. Get the right things done rather than only do things right.

When you are trying to think of that next great idea to promote your brand this week, think of this one and maybe it will make your mind start thinking in a productive direction. I'm not saying you should steal this idea, just use it to send your mind into another dimension.

The typhoon season in Asia is like our hurricane season on steroids. I once flew through one in a tiny, two person observation helicopter in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. I still thank God and pilot "Ace" Cozallio that I am still here to talk about it.

Aircel, a mobile phone service in India wanted to market the reliability of their service, even during Typhoons, so they attached a large inflated life boat to a billboard promoting their service as a lifesaver. On July 15th when an underpass next to the billboard in Mumbai quickly flooded leaving people stranded in cars, they cut the rope and used the boat to row to safety. The resulting press was phenomenal.

What nice piece of promotion might you do that could pay off in press? Step back from the trees and find a forest.

One of the great innovators of 20th century music died last week. Les Paul was a pioneer of solid body guitars and of multi-track recording. He and his wife Mary Ford had many unique hits back in the 40s and 50s.

Believe it or not, his first multi-track recordings were done on acetate discs, not audio tape ... In his garage. He recorded one track, then played the disk and recorded with it and then repeated the process several times creating multi-track recordings ... Even echo by using a Cadillac flywheel to make sure the tracks were recorded at exactly the same speed with a slight delay! Through his friend Bing Crosby he received one of the two German acetate tape machines "liberated" from Germany after WWII and became an innovator with audio tape.

The Gibson Les Paul solid body guitar become one of the most famous in the world in the 50s and regained popularity when Eric Clapton began using one.

We old guys need to take a moment to remember the great music from Les Paul and Mary Ford. Young people who have never heard of them should download a copy of a couple of their hits like "After You've Gone" or "Bye, Bye Blues." Those two songs show the unique style they created with no computers; only early, basic multi-track methods. Let me know what your thoughts are when listening to them.

The legacy lives on today in all recording. Production people, as you are working on your computer this week with track after track, think about Les Paul with an acetate recording machine creating multi-track in his garage just 60 years ago.

Last week Volkswagen agreed to buy a 42% stake in Porsche. What does that mean to you today? Nothing. Long term it's the beginning of an attempt to make the combined company one of the automotive giants beyond anything either company could do on its own. The new company will have some of the most respected European marquees beyond VW and Porsche. By 2011 it will include Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Skoda, Seat and Lamborghini.

This is a good talking point for you with your VW, Porsche, and Audi dealers, not to mention those of you who stand to get advertising dollars from super-luxury Bentley, Bugatti, and Lamborghini. It will be a long term win for you.

Remember, sales are not made overnight. The strongest sale is one coming as a result of a long term relationship.

There is a theory that organisms self regulate to maintain stability and the better the feedback the better an organism can regulate itself. It's pretty basic, but if a laboratory rat taps one lever and gets hit over the head and taps the other and gets food it will quickly self regulate away from the head hitter lever to the food lever.

That's pretty basic, but humans react to stimuli also. Remember the old saying, "You don't have to hit me over the head." Bottom line is the better the feedback and the more feedback, the better the reaction.

What's the lesson here? Answer honestly to yourself; how much solid feedback are you giving your employees? The more really solid feedback you give your employees whether it is what they are doing well or not so well, the better they will perform.

Take it a step further; what if the entire sales department, programming department, traffic department, promotion department, etc. each gets together every week (every day) and spends just a few minutes looking at what they are doing well and not so well?

Feedback helps self regulation ... Self regulation helps maintain stability ... Stability helps create success. It's your job to direct feedback. Make this week the beginning of better feedback for a stronger organization.