BrandingPost

Look at your offerings from the outside in. Why? It's your customers' point of view.

Mon, 18 May 2009 12:48:01 -0700

Interview, below, excerpted from BusinessWeek online (May 14). Yellow highlights and non-italic BF are mine:

Motorola (MOT), once the most dominant cell-phone maker in the world, has fallen mightily in the past couple of years. But the Schaumburg (Ill.) communications-gear manufacturer is now clawing its way back—sustained by the performance of its broadband, government, and enterprise equipment businesses even as the flagship cell-phone division continues its struggle for profitability. Though the turnaround is far from complete, some light can be seen at the end of the tunnel. Motorola co-CEO Gregory Q. Brown, who was chief operating officer in 2007 when Motorola's recent fall from grace began, talked with BusinessWeek's Roger O. Crockett about some of the lessons learned.

Was hubris, born of Motorola's Razr success, a factor in Motorola's decline?
I think success is one of the biggest impediments to growth. It can be blinding. It can reinforce a historical or traditional way of doing things.

What do you mean?
Sustainable success has to be earned every day. And sometimes, a hit product can mask the brutal reality that more work needs to be done. I also believe that successful organizations have an 'outside in' perspective. They are consistently looking at their work and the results through the lens of their customers or investors."

How did Motorola stray from this approach?
In Motorola's case, historically we viewed things inside out as opposed to outside in. And at certain points in our history we developed an unhealthy hubris that manifested itself in us thinking we knew what was best for customers, as opposed to listening in an unfiltered and unemotional way to what customers were telling us."

This blog has flogged the outside-in gospel from the beginning. We wrote a damn book about it. There's nothing really new here, folks, yet history just keeps on repeating itself. The victim here: Motorola. They should've asked. Coulda told "em.

"Your own personal brand" worth considering at graduation?

Fri, 15 May 2009 11:26:52 -0700

So now we learn that College Journalists Want To Erase Their Past From Google.

This raises all kinds of issues, the heaviest of which are (1) the whole notion of what a college education is supposed to be and (2) what a corporate "HR" department is supposed to be. OK, so you write something at 18 that you hesitate to put on your "book" at 22 for fear that some HR drone somewhere won't be amused. Are recruiters supposed to be screening for perfection? Silly me, I thought it was all about talent. Do we want to hire humanoids with no flaws or human beings with with a lot of upside? Graduates, know this: if you spent the majority of your time the past four years learning, growing and expanding your consciousness, you spent it well. If all you did was obsess on not making mistakes, you squandered it. As for any HR-type looking for Mr. Perfect and Ms. Flawless, and discarding anything "less", you're going to miss out on the very talent you're trying to score. And you'll deserve what you end up with.

Merrill-Lynch brand? D.O.A. (L.O.L.)

Mon, 04 May 2009 11:19:22 -0700

A brand that takes years to build can melt down overnight. Consider Merrill-Lynch, as painful as that might be right now. Or Bank of America, for that matter. The list is as long as it infamous. The academics are weighing in on all of this at the present moment. After the fact, of course, but that’s the way of academia. “Bullish on America” sounds today like the most hollow tagline since Sun’s “We’re the dot in dot-com”, circa Y2K. But, again, hindsight is always crystal clear. As for financial brands still standing, Charles Schwab, as usual, is headed in the right direction with its customer-sentiment campaign, but creative execution is ham-handed and clumsy, as usual. Talk to Chuck? Where’s he been the past few years? Not talking to Brooksley Born, apparently. But neither was Alan Greenspan.

The bigger the crisis, the greater the need to "not let it go to waste".

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:30:09 -0700

Lynda Applegate of Harvard Business School articulates the oft-spoken truths about the Crisis Imperative that's taken up residence in every corner office today. Problem with these truths, of course, is how infrequently they are heeded by the corner-office incumbents. In the panic of the moment, the survival instinct trumps all. Cut, fire, and hunker-down in the storm cellar as the raging tornado lays waste. Then hope the damage isn't too catastrophic. The wiser course is a full-frontal assault on the status quo, which translates into an organizational obsession on innovation among other things. Not just product innovation. All-out business-model innovation (and org. restructuring). It can open the door to offering your customers a value proposition they cannot refuse. (Our free book discusses this in detail, or you can diagnose your own value proposition here.) Examples abound, of course, and Applegate points to Lew Gerstner's feat at IBM. Speaking of which, never forget that one of the most profound innovations of the last 25 years occurred during a recession even worse (1980-82) than the one we're in now, as we are reminded by Tom Campbell today. It was a business-model innovation: the IBM PC's outsourced components. The message here? Innovate in a crisis -- and thrive. Don't let it go to waste.

If America is in decline, can our brands be far behind?

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:49:52 -0700

The words are chilling: We are no longer a nation at risk. We are a nation in decline.

Tom Friedman's column today sums up the McKinsey study on K-12 education in America and what he sees ain't pretty. I must ask: as our high-school students prepare themselves for $10 an hour jobs, and look forward to competing globally with their peers in Portugal and the Slovak Republic, will their contemporaries in Holland, Canada and Australia build the next great companies and brands? The good news: President Obama appears to get it. Now, to instigate the kind of cultural and political metamorphosis it's going to take to return America's K-12 education to the standards of the 1950s and '60s. It's no coincidence that these standards and the rise of prosperity for which we've been envied and idolized were concurrent.

Oracle and Sun. Not exactly Irish coffee.

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:24:47 -0700

Some things, when you combine them, amount to something less than the sum of the parts. Think Irish coffee. It ruins a perfectly good cup of coffee and a nice shot of whiskey.

Today we’re treated to the latest episode in Sun Microsystems, one of the longest running soap operas in Silicon Valley, the one entitled “The One When Larry Bought Scott”. The Oracle-Sun deal hasn’t gone down yet, but assuming it does, it can’t ruin Sun. That happened long ago. As for Ellison’s outfit, it only gets bigger and stronger. And it gets Java, “the most important software asset (it’s) ever acquired”, he says, for less money than it paid for BEA, Peoplesoft and Siebel. Hey, that’s why he’s Larry Ellison. IBM had no comment.

The John Madden brand went far beyond the broadcast booth and fulfilled its promise everywhere it went

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:30:36 -0700

John Madden sold the hell out of athlete’s-foot medicine, hardware, steaks and video games (“Madden NFL Football” is the largest selling title ever). Not only to his regular-guy demographic, but to everybody.

He sold a lot people on NFL football, too.

How’d he do it? Just by being the guy he really is. Unlike so many in the TV trade. Which is what made him so well liked for so long in a business full of people full of themselves. He was the anti-Howard Cosell.

He stepped down from the broadcast booth at NBC today. No big shock, really. You could hear the fatigue in the voice during the past couple of seasons, even if you weren’t listening too closely. Life on the road during the long season, even in a plush bus, will get to you. I always thought it was unfair to other TV analysts whenever they were compared to Madden. There was nobody else like him. And isn't this exactly what you want people to think about your own brand? His 2009 Super Bowl was vintage. He went out on top, unlike many of the athletes he covered.

Recession be damned: Hyundai's push gains market share.

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:45:59 -0700

Whoops! On Monday (April 13) I said Hyundai was selling fewer cars this year. Wrong. They’re on a major push at the moment and, as it turns out, are underscoring the wisdom of the old advertising adage about growing your market share in a recession. Caveat: you don’t necessarily make money when you’re taking share away from rivals. BUT – at the end of the recession, you’re better off than the guys you left in the dust. Read about it here. Good for them. Also, let’s raise a glass to the following brands: Plymouth, Miracle Whip, Texas Instruments, and Apple’s iPod. Each was launched and heavily promoted during serious economic downturns: 1933, ’54 and ’01. Strong leaders show greatest strength in the weakest economies. The most insulting epitaph for a leader: “She was at her best when the going was good”.

Even if you're listening to customers, you may not hear anything useful

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:08:09 -0700

A member of our Network, Overtone, is co-hosting a Webinar with us next week (April 23) ostensibly about gathering intelligence about customers. What it really is: a teaching moment about self-delusion. So many of us delude ourselves into believing that “listening to customers” is part of our regular routine. In fact, the harder we listen the less intelligent we can become. Companies almost never get statistically significant data from customers and prospects, a.k.a. the marketplace, relying on an occasional focus group or a random customer satisfaction survey. Or, god forbid, G2 from the field. Are things ever as bad or as good as salespeople say? Overtone’s approach, by contrast, relied upon by the likes of Microsoft and eHarmony, amounts to a 24/7 pipe into the not-so-secret world of the customer. Statistically significant numbers of them. Most of us might not be able to afford what Overtone’s big clients pay for the pipe, but the principles of listening and applying what can be learned, which they intend to share in this Webinar, might amaze you. Most important, they’re practical things you can start doing right away. Unless you want to depend on the field.

Reason to rejoice for AAPL shareholders. The Dude abides.

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:55:56 -0700

If there ever was a guy synonymous with his shop, it is Steve Jobs. More than Donald Trump, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, or Richard Branson. No Steve, no Apple. It's sort of like the fashion designer, Valentino. It really is that simple. And it gladdens my heart that the old boy is still making his presence felt, gaunt though it may be. As a fellow cancer patient, now fully back in the game, I feel a sense of kinship. As a former colleague of the dude, I can attest that the kind of creative tension he creates, just by showing up, or threatening to, is palpable and immeasurably, collosally valuable. Jobs knows instinctively, in every fiber of his being, what a compelling and relevant value proposition is really about. As long as he is up to his whiskers in product conception, design, and go-to-market tactics, shareholders will be rewarded. But apres Steve, le "drought". Count on it.

PC vs. Mac: Which one's the better value proposition?

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:09:57 -0700

It’s a question without an answer, really, but it’s never a boring debate. Does the cheaper PC have the “value” edge over Apple at a time when more people may be more value conscious? As always, it depends on whom you ask. There are PC-philes out there who just don’t like Apple or anything about it. There are Apple fans that wouldn’t be seen in the same cubicle with a PC. There are people in the middle who just want a computer to do the stuff most of us do with a computer, but who still think Apple is a brand that promises more than a fashion statement.

Here’s my two cents (and how about THAT for value?): From a manufacturer’s point of view, it’s all about the way you’ve identified your target. Apple knows everything about its target and exactly what that buyer will spend to get the benefits of using a Mac. Apple designs and sells a product impeccably suited to this buyer and no one else. It’s comparable to what the pricier brands in some other categories do and they don’t necessarily suffer in an economic downturn anymore than the budget-conscious brands.

BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, etc., are selling fewer cars today, yes. But so are Ford, Chevy and Hyundai. BMW drivers want to own and drive a BMW, not a Buick (sorry, Tiger). They’ll spend a lot more money to do so. Does Apple aim the Mac at budget-minded parents sending kids off to college? Nope. And it doesn’t waste a lot of energy promoting to the hardcore PC legions. To Mac users, buying a PC running Windows/Vista is money that could have been put toward a new Mac/OSX. Apple sets prices according to our own value-proposition formula , BTW: it can quantify and validate the value of a Mac’s benefit according to the people who buy it, then it drives adoption costs to practically zero. And then it sets the price point accordingly.

SGI: Another one bites the (star)dust. Linux victim?

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:43:47 -0700

And so it goes in The Valley. Entrances with ruffles and flourishes, meteoric rise to fame and fortune and more fortune. And then, demise – sudden and ignominious or slow and anonymous. Or something in between.

Silicon Graphics was the quintessential Valley brand. Founded in 1982 by the quintessential Valley guy, serial entrepreneur Jim Clark who would go on to start Netscape. Ten years later, SGI was a tech brand of purest gold. Ditto Netscape for a brief shining moment shortly thereafter.

Remember? Silicon Graphics was at a dizzying peak right about the time that Bill Clinton arrived at the White House. Today comes the news that a bankrupt SGI was sold to somebody called Rackable Systems for an amount comparable to Clinton’s yearly income from speaking gigs. The TechCrunch item sums it up pretty well in describing how SGI succumbed “to the spread of cheap Linux boxes hooked up with massive redundancies. You don’t build Web-scale services on expensive proprietary boxes. You build them on cheap, open-source systems. Just ask Google (or Amazon or Salesforce or anyone else.” Indeed.

Ironic how a company that brought dinosaurs to life in the movie Jurassic Park would end up a dinosaur. But that’s life in Silicon Valley. Today's hot-shot, tomorrow's T-Rex.

The Government: Big dog on the GM Board bites the hand that took the handout

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:15:08 -0700

“For all the support he still enjoys amid GM's salaried ranks, (CEO Rick) Wagoner's tenure was marked by unfulfilled promises, massive corporate losses, destroyed credit ratings, the insignificant value of GM shares, tens of thousands of jobs lost and the gutting of GM's sprawling operations.

“All true. Why it's true doesn't much matter anymore.”

Such is the new dynamic that will impact weakening brands far beyond American cars like Saturn and Hummer. This is the world in which live today. So who’ll be the next boss to take a Wagonerian fall?

Hard as it is to watch an American President ask for the resignation of the CEO of General Motors – it’s strange to even write the words – what else was there to do? While automakers the world over are struggling today, Detroit (including the UAW) lost touch with that world long before the economy tanked. GM’s value proposition had simply lost relevance (hello, UAW). It did not compel buyers to whip out checkbooks. It not only built cars to which people could just say no, its business model was in the junkyard. In this context, the spectacle of Rick Wagoner supplicating himself before Congress was too much. A public hanging was inevitable. We are now watching the politics of economics.

Google layoffs? See yesterday's post. Same as it ever was.

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:39:50 -0700

When you think about it, shooting one percent of your headcount in the midst of the worst recession most of us can remember, as Google did yesterday, isn’t exactly draconian. Indeed, when you consider that a good chunk of that 200 was contractor-types, it’s barely a nick. Yes, for the folks let go it’s no fun. Most of us have been there, including yours truly. But the “news” here is that the unthinkable, the thing whose name we dare not speak, the dreaded “L” word, has befallen the Valley’s brand of brilliance. Its economic Shangri-La. Which only goes to show that there is no flaw and no dysfunction that an ever-swelling revenue line can’t conceal. It was my dentist, no less, who told me two years ago that the headcount at Google was absurdly robust. He had been invited to lunch at the Google-plex. He was astonished by the hordes of Googlers who were just wandering around, schmoozing, flirting, contemplating the essential order of the universe. Playing volleyball. “ For several hours, I didn’t see a single person doing anything that looked like actual work,” he laughed. So how many of these people are/were at their best when the going is/was good? Time will tell. In the meantime, I wish all of them well. It’s no fun being canned for any reason.

Google defections? What's the big deal?

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:33:58 -0700

Into the le plus ca change category we put this item about the designer exodus out of Google. In fact, it’s the same as it ever was in The Valley. Look, I said goodbye to Apple after producing three annual reports and an ulcer (Apple years were equivalent to doggie years during that pre-and-post Scully era, I should note).

I departed Network Equipment Technologies after six.

Said adios to NetApp after four. My point: Departures from successful companies by successful people who have left their marks on the brands should not necessarily raise eyebrows. Even when there are traces of smoke. As in a "huffs" of smoke. The folks should be allowed to exit stage right or left with minimum fanfare. Presumably, they move onward and upward to the next gig. Hopefully, the next Big Thing. So many pundits and wannabes wanna see patterns in the goat entrails. Which, understandably, makes for the conflict that makes for a good story. A lot of us leave gigs for the same reason we arrived in the first place: the promise of something new.