We set the context, tone, flow and end result.

Whether its a brochure, a video, a blog post once someone is consuming it you get to guide that conversation.

And that’s a massive opportunity, do not waste it, use it to move each and every consumer forward towards your shared goal.

Then let others build the interface on top.  Even let multiple people do it.

The best UI wins.

Unless we have a set target, or a goal, if we can keep that in sight we tend to get there.

Each pen counts, each book counts, item of clothing. You just need to get down to 100.

It is possible, tough, but possible. I once got down to about 76 I recall. It’s now much higher.

But it’s a nice exercise and ethos, what is it that I need? what is adding value? What am I keeping – just because.

A blog is like a house you built yourself from the ground up.

Using a Facebook Page is like renting a shop on a popular street.

If you build the blog, you have to make it interesting enough for people to stop by. You can do what you want.

If you lease, it’s already built & people are already there ready to buy. You just need to personalise and leverage it.

Like most things, you probably want to lease first to get a feel for it, then buy later once you know what you’re doing.

The cafe market in Auckland is pretty fierce and this is what happens when competition heats up, organisations have to innovate to hold attention, things like this arise.

And I like it.

Which means their competitors can bid for that same ad space.

It also means that the number of ad inventory available is vastly over quoted.

Publishers should hugely inflate their value IF when there wasn’t any premium spots available they showed no ads.  It makes them more novel, exclusive and notable.    Thus achieving the purpose of the ad.

And for a few Kindle Singles, I enjoyed:

• Wired McAfee single, talking about his shift to Belize, written just before the recent stream of events.
• A quick summary of Warren Buffetts favourite three books, a nice way to digest wider advice.
• Gutenberg, looking at the man who invented the printing press.

Other notables:

• One Click: Looking at Jeff Bezos and the growth of Amazon. An excellent book which is a must read to know the man behind Amazon but also the early years which formed the company.
• Grouped, looking at how the web has reformulated itself so that your peer groups influence your decision making and moving from a 1-1 relationship with the web.
• NewsJacking, latest David Merman Scott, reminding us of guerrilla marketing in the digital (real time) age. A great prod.
• Stealth of Nations, I have written about it before, but looking at the effect the informal economy has around the world. Marvellous read.

That is what’s at the end, what’s upcoming and what’s tipping mainstream.

Mobile (as in smartphones, apps, mobile sites, content) is just beginning to tip.

It’s been massive & growing for a while, those in early have definitely benefitted but now it’s starting to get to the bulk of businesses from the laggards to the late majority.

First tip is to look at your current analytics, how many are already coming via mobile? 15% seems the norm, higher means you need to hurry up.

Nothing more telling than experiencing something.

So with that, I’m off up to New York for Ad:Tech NY in a couple of weeks.

If any blog readers want to meet up always keen – just flick me a note.

We have a demo of our technology platform Nudge which identifies brand influencers which we’ll be presenting to a few companies.    If you’re a brand manager (especially in FMCG) trying to figure out how to tackle digital give me a bell.

And we (via Young&Shand) have some great case studies of, doubling FMCG sales through digital, effective digital integrated campaigns and a framework for launching new consumer products.  Straightforward but quite insightful

Our schedule is tight but we’re there from 3rd-11th.

Or if you know anyone that I ought to meet I’d also be keen.

For this email me ben.young@youngshand.com

-Ben

Disagreements come up all the time. Working with parties who have conflicting agendas are all part in parcel.

Disagreement doesn’t mean you’re right and they’re wrong, or vice versa, it just means you disagree. Even if we can’t agree on these points, here are some we can, to build a relationship lets focus on these.

It’s often the lack of relationship which creates the friction, the differences can exist but a stronger relationship lessens the negative effects.

Never let your ego get in the way of getting to that relationsip. It is tough but means you can get to that bigger goal which makes it worth it.  You’d be surprised of what you can accomplish when you do.

Inspire yourselves, let people take ownership of their spaces, decorating, or creating art, posters on the wall.

Have a beer fridge – with all sorts of beverages. Again lets people have some social time at work, meaning a stressful day can be unwound before you go.

Have brainstorms. Get everyone out to help solve a problem. Gets everyone involved.

Team lunches. Again when the company has a big win – take the team out. Share the win with everyone. It’s what the whole organisation is there for.

Share case studies. Little stories or wins that people have. This can be a newsletter, notice board.

Company talks every now and again. We do Y&S talks, with topics from how to sell an idea to art installations. Google Talks are even more impressive.

Pick one and give it a go.

To bring it to life you need to play it or find a mate who can.

It’s not real or complete till you take part.

People just want to be involved, acknowledged & rewarded for their participation. It’s the fundamental behind all successful products.

However.

These days we have them, one’s called Facebook, one’s called Yammer, one’s called Twitter, on top of our work and personal emails.

At some point there’s going to be some consolidation. There always is.  Make it easier for us.

Even at that price as everything is hand produced he can only make so many suits, the cost of 1 suit or 10 is the same as the inputs are the same. There are no efficiencies.

The irony here is for craftsmanship to remain, technology needs to come into play. How do you retain that craft whilst embracing technology?

I suspect is starts with technology assistance, what are the 20 little optimisations that improve the process? Rather than looking at factory like churning out, how can technology help him personally. Rather than replace, embrace the craft.

Simulations give us the opportunity to do better. To experiment. To try something different. Without fair of reprisal.

It’s kind of like how kids test their parents. Where are the limits. What happens when you can circumvent them.

Flight manual checklists are refined based on how pilots respond in simulations. Making sure that they understand what they need to do and that they consistently perform the key actions.

Sales professionals do role practice sales call, refining their pitches.

The military have many War Game simulations to continually test and refine operations.

Stock markets have simulations to allow you to play and learn with fake money.

Always worth a go. It’s when people can test without fear of retribution that they do so.

Games are often the easiest way to get into this, have a hunt around, you’d be surprised at what simulations you can find.

The easiest hack is to retrace your steps, reread what you were reading, click through the sites, walk back downstairs.  Go back to the start and start again.

Whatever you were intending do to will come back to you.

As whilst you’ve physically retraced your steps you’ve also mentally retraced your steps, making the same connections and in turn arriving at the same thought.

One such thing was ROSCAS, rolling savings schemes, a group of people meet up at regular intervals. Each time they contribute a certain amount and one person takes the whole amount. All you have to do is turn up and commit to doing that to hit your savings goals.

Read more below:

“When we met her, she belonged to no fewer than six ROSCAs, which differed in size and frequency of meeting. In one of them, she contributed 1,000 Kenyan shillings, or KES ($17.50 USD PPP), per month, in another one 580 KES twice a month (500 for the pot, 50 to pay for the sugar for the tea, which is an essential part of the ceremony, and 30 for the welfare fund). In another, the contribution was 500 KES per month, plus 200 as extra savings. Then there was a weekly ROSCA (150 KES per week), one that met three times a week (50 KES), and one that was daily (20 KES). Each ROSCA had a specific, separate purpose, she explained. The small ones were for her rent (this was before she built a house), the bigger ones for long-term projects (such as house improvements) or for school fees. Auma saw many advantages to ROSCAs over traditional savings accounts: They don’t have fees, she could make small deposits, and on average she got access to the pot much faster than it would take her if she saved the same amount every week…..”

“But her financial portfolio did not end with the six ROSCAs. She had taken a loan from one of her ROSCA savings pools in early May 2009 (a little over two months before we met her) to buy maize worth 6,000 KES ($105 USD PPP). She was also a member of the village savings bank, where she had a savings account, though it was currently almost empty. She had used that money to buy shares in the village bank worth 12,000 KES ($210 USD PPP). Along with some shares she already had (each share entitled the borrower to borrow up to 4 KES from the village bank), this allowed her to borrow 70,000 KES ($1,222 USD PPP) and build herself a house. She also had little stashes of money hidden in various parts of her house to deal with small emergencies such as health needs, although as she pointed out, sometimes the health money was used for feeding visitors. Finally, she was owed money by a variety of people, including 1,200 KES by her clients and 4,000 KES by a former member of her joint liability group in the village savings bank. He had defaulted on the loan when he still owed the bank 60,000 KES ($1,050 USD PPP), obliging the group members to cover for him, and he was only now slowly paying them back. As a market vendor married to a farmer, Jennifer Auma probably lived on much less than $2 a day. Yet she had an array of finely tuned financial instruments.”

Excerpts from Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty - great read.

Imagine this concept here?

I’ve always believed, we can learn as much from developing countries as they can from us.

Taking something that is a regular size, making it smaller and thus reducing the commitment and opening up opportunities.

Smaller drinks for on the go.

Smaller content for greater consumption (tumblr, instagram, facebook status).

Smaller car.

PSP Slim, quadrupled sales, same product, just smaller.

What other opportunities could be created through making a micro version? Smaller, less commitment, more guidance.  Great process to undertake.

Apple stores purposely tilt the screens just enough so you can’t quite see it, so you reach out and adjust the screen. Then you can start playing with it and you start to get a sense of ownership.

They’ve all been loaded with games, apps and of course internet access. Heck just pop in and use the internet for free.

How do you create a sense of ownership? Getting your customers involved so they can actually take ownership of what you’re offering.

Kind of like what Michael Gerber was saying when I meet him, the best companies allow their customers to create.