Tuesday, October 9, 2007

A couple thoughts from the last few days

1. My last blog entry was moderately clear at best
2. Design will continue to enter into more and more categories as a large driver of purchase. I was reading in the most recent issue of Fast Company that a three year study of more than 40 Fortune 500 companies found that organizations focused on customer-experience design have outperformed the S&P 500 by 10 to 1 from 2000 to 2005.
3. When you speak in front of large groups demonstrate value. Utilize examples, data, stories or accomplishments. Speaking in platitudes or methodologies is opaque and a waste of everyone's time.
4. I'm still not sure what makes people successful in large companies. Its been 2 years and I'm still shocked at who rises to positions of leadership. It seems the "I started with $x and grew it to $x in 3 years, etc." is not actually what accelerates people up the corporate ladder.
5. "Hurricane Products" It always amazes me how marketing can move large masses of people. Particularly the products that are built upon belief and substitute traditional functional attributes with heavy doses of emotion. Like a hurricane, they come through and dominate the environments they play in and command attention from everyone. So far I've nailed down two. Fireworks and diamonds.

No comments: