The shape of sound is the soul of the universe

I am research and writing about the future at the moment.  (The special FREE offer still stands if you are interested - check out the website).

One chapter deals with the shape of trends. (You will have to read the whole thing to understand.) Along the way I stumbled on this video. Whether you consider the universe to be a web of vibrating strings in 10 dimensions or whether you have a more spiritual perspective does not matter - this video will resonate. ENJOY!

Digital Disruption

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One of the sources I refer to in my FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS is the Deloitte's study on Digital Disruption.   This video is a nice primer on the topic.

How to be a star salesman

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This is a great interview (allow an hour - but it is worth it) because there are plenty of practical examples and techniques. Andrew Warner of Mixergy is the interviewer an he does a great job summarizing the key insights along the way.

I am your customer

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Dear retailer,

I see when you reduce portion sizes without reducing the price.

I notice when you wipe the side of the cup with your hand.

I see the dirty cloth in your back pocket and the dirty mop and bucket in the corner.

I can spot the difference between a fake smile and a real one.

I know you think I am not going to tip if visit wearing my tracky dax.

I notice when you avert your gaze to avoid being approached.

I get that you don’t want to really be there.

I see all these things.

But I don’t care.

I can always go somewhere else, if not today, tomorrow.

Yours sincerely

Customer

How Apple thinks about design is a lesson in brand creation

A simple short video (HT Neil Perkins) about Apple's design philosophy and approach.  The KEY - I believe will be found at around the 30 sec mark with the first step.

Achieve success, negotiate and plan - in one funny lesson

Father : “I want you to marry a girl of my choice”

Son    : “I will choose my own bride!”

Father : “But the girl is Bill Gates’s daughter.”

Son    : “Well, in that case… OK”

Next Father approaches Bill Gates.

Father    : “I have a husband for your daughter.”

Bill Gates: “But my daughter is too young to marry!”

Father    : “But this young man is a vice-president of the World Bank.”

Bill Gates: “Ah, in that case… OK”

Finally Father goes to see the president of the World Bank.

Father: “I have a young man to be recommended as a vice-president.”

President: “But I already have more vice- presidents than I need!”

Father: “But this young man is Bill Gates’s son-in-law.”

President: “Ah, in that case… OK”

This is how good business is done. 

Why do people post pictures of cats on Facebook?

Why do the endless updates about every pose and every step of their first born – with running commentary? Or possibly worse, why post ‘inspirational quotes’ as the McPhilosophy of the day? (This is one reason why I quit Facebook.)

Why do they feel the need to record it? Why do people find it funny, interesting and worth sharing?

Answer: Because it matters to them.

If that sounds like stating the bleeding obvious, it is because it is. People think because it matters to them, it must matter to others.

They can’t understand why you don’t find it funny or interesting just as much as you can’t understand why they do.

People are inherently selfish and find it difficult to appreciate a different perspective – and this has consequences for how manage our businesses:

One: You are not your customer. You can’t just buy the product you like because you like it. You must buy what customers (other people) want.

Two: It doesn’t matter what you think the value of a certain item is; the value is whatever the customer thinks it is. (In real estate there is an expression: You are selling a home, the buyer is purchasing a house. Both parties would value the property differently because of their different perspectives.)

Three: When facing a difficult customer, we all know they are not right, but we also know that it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that they think they are right.

Four: It doesn’t matter whether you (or I ) believe in social media or like/dislike Facebook – all that matters is that customers do.

Five: You may think you are treating your staff well, but all that matters is what they think? (If I look at training priorities in companies I am inclined to think that your employees are probably right.)

I could go on, but you get the general idea: Humans find it incredibly difficult to walk in the shoes of other people.

We CLAIM to understand others, but somehow we don’t all find the same joke funny. I found a statistic (but lost the source) that 80% of managers think they deliver great service but only 8% of customers agree. The actual percentages are not important but the magnitude of that gap is significant.

The good news is that we can learn to walk in other people’s shoes just as we learned to walk in our own. It takes time, commitment and quite a lot of falling over, but eventually it will come naturally.

It starts, like any good old AA meeting, with an acknowledgment of the issue before attempting the remedy.

Have fun...

Dennis

Future-proof your business with Ganador.

PS: I am researching and documenting some of the major shifts in society and am sharing it for free to groups who are interested. HERE for those interested. (No strings, but limitations apply, so be quick.)

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How do you know what you know?

Entertaining and smart. Watch this and re-think what you think you know as 'reality'. 

All of your business decisions are based on what you think you know - so it is worth knowing how you know... 

A fish rots from the head down

That's is a great Aussie expression, don't you think.?

And has major implications for the delivery of customer service.  DOWNLOAD THIS INTERVIEW (pdf) to read an article published in the Geelong Advertiser recently (after yours truly was interviewed.)

Let me know if you agree/disagree. 

This guy won't drive when drunk -EVER

This is one of the most graphic advertisements - if you can call it an ad - that you will see in a long time., or maybe have EVER seen. 

Do you think it is too much? 

Two words on how to become successful (Friday Funny)

"Sir, What is the secret of your success?" a reporter asked a bank president.

"Two words"

"And, Sir,what are they?"

"Right decisions."

"And how do you make right decisions?"

"One word."

"And,sir, What is that?"

"Experience."

"And how do you get Experience?"

"Two words"

"And, Sir, what are they?"

"Wrong decisions" 

The Retail (R)evolution starts here

Human beings are, from an evolutionary perspective, not well-equipped to deal with danger and change. We are not particularly fast or strong. We have no special ability to ward off danger (like thick skins, shooting poison from our fangs or a special camouflage) and all we can rely on are our minds.

But we are failing miserably to use our only evolutionary protective mechanism.

Knowledge has been democratised and education is being de-institutionalised. The last barrier to fall is the idea that teachers/trainers hold the ‘keys to the kingdom’. When they abandon formal assessment, and the industrial notion that knowledge can be certified, then real progress will happen.

• People no longer believe what journalists tell them
• People no longer buy what you sell them.
• People no longer go where you lead them.
• People no longer learn what you teach them.

This means there the death of the journo, the salesmen/marketers – and also the leaders and teachers who physically, psychologically and intellectually see themselves as rightfully ‘owning’ the front of the class.

As usual, at the edge of change, chaos rules. The world is evolving into something that we are not ready for and do not have the answers for. Will people be willing to give up ‘qualifications’? Increasingly they will. It has never been a prerequisite to success and now (thanks to the internet) we all know it – and fact many of these people are our heroes. The cachet of a paper seal has evaporated. Recently Peter Thiel (PayPal founder) paid 20 young people $100K to quit college.)

We have seen the nascent trend of a ‘non-training-approach’ to learning. It is still struggling to define itself, and if it does not hang itself in a forest of jargon, we are onto something: integrating the knowledge of doing with the act of passing it along in the process of working.

As you may expect, we have a technology that enables people to learn socially (from each other). There is a technology platform for everything! The uptake is slower than expected. Organisations (HR) want to ‘control’ theses interactions with a set syllabus, but little do they realise that the conversations are happening anyway: people are talking and learning from each other as they always have; but now they have the tools to bypass the traditional gatekeepers and access the relevant knowledge from a source and a time and pace that suits them.

Which brings us to the Retail Revolution.

As you well know, many retailers are struggling – maybe including you. And if you want to successfully evolve, we have to start using our brains – in particularly our collective minds.

In every business there are frustrated employees who KNOW the answer and who may even be willing to share it with you. The reasons why they don’t are obvious:

1. They don’t like or trust you
2. They are disengaged and passive
3. They don’t feel empowered to share and contribute
4. They are unskilled/ feel unequipped
5. There is no opportunity/ mechanism to share and contribute
6. You don’t ask

The confronting truth about all if this is that YOU are to blame if these symptoms pervade your business. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but there really is no one else to blame.

Our only evolutionary advantage is our brains. If we don’t use those to proactively adapt to these evolutionary pressures, we will become extinct because the forces of change cannot be held at bay, we can only adapt.

Every successful organisation comes about because of the collective minds within that organisation applying themselves to the tasks at hand. The journey of success for your organisation starts when you get all those minds working together towards a common goal.

And for you to start down that path, you should let go of the idea that you and only you have the answers or are supposed to have all the answers.

‘Crowdsource’ your solutions from the people that have the most at stake – your employees and I guarantee that, if you have recruited well, you will be mightily surprised.

Have fun.

Dennis Price

Future-proof your business with Ganador

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