A few years ago, my wife and I were in Maryland. While walking down the sidewalk, we stumbled upon a Restoration Hardware. We had never seen one before. Was it a hardware store? Was it a DIY supply store? Whatever it was, it looked intriguing…Large entry doors, beautiful decor, the works. We just had to check it out.
Once inside, what we found was an incredibly limited yet high quality selection of everything from bedding to furniture to accessories for every room in the house. But what was really cool was this: Instead of the plethora of paint shades and samples, Restoration Hardware had 32 carefully-selected colors… Not 320, not 3200.
How much stress could we eliminate from our lives if we weren’t overwhelmed with hundreds of low-quality choices and instead presented with a few high-value decisions to make each day?
Posted by admin | Posted in Leveraging Technology | Posted on 23-11-2009
Technologies like Skype make it possible to shrink the world. Many people used to prefer to deal with the “neighborhood shop” or to drive to the bank to make their deposits. Today, direct deposit, online accounts, e-mail and video conferencing with webcams can put someone in “virtually” the same room as anyone, anywhere, any time.
So why does it matter where an office is located anymore? Is it still necessary to be “where the action is” or is it possible to have relationships with clients a world away? There are certainly differing opinions about this across the business spectrum. But really, how much does it matter that the person you know and trust isn’t physically around the corner when their “virtual office” is only a foot away from your face? With the costs of doing business on the rise, why not make the most of the technology we are constantly being introduced to? You may actually have more time and money to share with the people that matter most to you if you just embraced the change.
Posted by admin | Posted in A shift in advertising | Posted on 18-11-2009
The economics terms that I learned as ”what is produced versus what is consumed or purchased” and how the pricing model was correlated to that relationship…Both were “things”. What if we were to look at this relationship in a slightly different context? What if “demand” were an action instead of a thing? How can businesses create an experience so notable, unique, and remarkable that consumers DEMAND supply? How would lives be changed?
I may be a small business owner who has to earn a living, but I’m also a father with a busy family life. I really enjoy sitting at the dinner table talking to my wife and children about how their days went. The likelihood of me cheerfullyanswering a ringing telephone, eagerly opening a stack of “junk” mail, or signing up for your “free, once-in-a-lifetime webinar on financial success” is extremely low. Quite simply, it isn’t going to happen–ever. Now there is legislation being proposed that will prevent people from calling me back even when I initiated contact with THEM and provided MYcontact information.
What’s that telling us? That RELATIONSHIPS rule business. No matter how much money companies spend trying to maintain and enhance their images, the rubber hits the road when a personal relationship is established between the consumer and a needs representative. (I can’t even say salesperson.)
Some of the most wonderful experiences in life start on a whim. Like the other night when when we got together with some of our neighbors on the back patio for a few beverages and appetizers. The kids ran around while we all talked and listened to music. Every time we’re around them we feel like some of the luckiest people in the world to be part of a real “neighborhood”. Imagine how it would be if we had the ability to make decisions without being presented opinions that influenced us or made us feel bad for making a choice.
