Free Business Idea #32

What if someone combined a pizza place (like MOD) with the business model of Tom’s shoes?  For every pizza sold, one would be given to a hungry person (through a school, at a homeless shelter, through service agencies, etc).  I bet people would pay a little more for their pizza knowing they are helping a good cause.  Plus, it could make people choose your pizza place over others when corporate events and birthday parties came around.  It would taste good and make them look good while they are doing good.

Someone should do this.  And tell me about it.  You’re welcome.

Bert and Ernie

Named after the public officials in “It’s a wonderful Life”, the Sesame Street characters, Bert and Ernie, are a staple of childhood mythology.  Ernie represents enthusiasm and wonder.  Bert represents practicality and order.  The “odd couple” certainly.

In our organizations, we divide up into Bert and Ernie camps.  Some of us ideate, have a sense of urgency, and can be easily distracted.  Others of us can have singular focus (even if our obsessions are misplaced on pigeons and stamp collecting), are skeptical, and risk adverse.  Our organizations need both.

Josh Goldblum from Blue Cadet spoke at a conference and said he is the Ernie to his business partner’s Bert.  Who are you?

Growth

"We neither shun growth or idolize it. We view it as a by-product of achieving our other goals." -McKinsey & Company

From the Inside Out: what to do when air gets dense

I just returned from a vacation in the mountains and thought it was hilarious that the unopened bag of chips, which were popping at the seams in the higher altitude, were back down to the normal again when I arrived back home.  And that empty plastic bottles that we packed in the mountains and brought down to recycle, collapsed in our kitchen.  Clearly, the air was different there.

Everyone knows the air is “thinner” at altitude.  The contents of the air spread out in the lower air pressure.  As if each molecule of oxygen also wanted to go on vacation and get away from it all.  At sea level, the air pressure is higher because it bears the combined weight of the air molecules in the atmosphere. At the depths where scuba divers dare to do, that density is even more pronounced.

Life is like this as well.  Sometimes, when you are on a mountain-top of emotions, the air seems lighter as attitudes are buoyant and optimism is high.  In other times, you can feel the weight of the atmosphere bearing down and the density of the air surrounding you.  The heaviness of life.

Adjusting to different physical altitudes is a science and an art.  Scuba divers and mountain climbers know the risks of pressure imbalances.  I have read that the builders of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City were subjected to unprotected dive conditions and developed symptoms like leg weakness, headaches, dizziness, and the like.  Symptoms that were often confused with drunkenness to their neighbors, but were in fact decompression sickness.  We can develop our own debilitating conditions when we don’t adapt properly to changing conditions.

Yesterday, I went from a relaxing vacation get-away to hearing of a family friend’s losing battle with cancer. Although those are both personal examples, we have all experienced professional highs and lows in rapid succession.  A big win followed by a loss.  A project triumph followed by new frustrations or set-backs.  Times of breathless amazement and times of defeat when we can’t seem to catch our breath.  Such is life. 

So, does the treatment of decompression sickness teach us anything about dealing with the ups and downs of our circumstances?

The first thing they do to treat decompression sickness is to administer 100% oxygen, preferable in a high-pressure chamber.  Something that would stabilize the person at a level before they move to normal conditions.  Something that would put the gasses in their blood back into solution.  Medical professionals also recommend fluids to fight dehydration.  This kind of nourishment works from the inside out. 

Sometimes we need the same at work – nourishment from the inside out.  When things go from good to worse, it is critical to maintain our perspective and force ourselves to be grateful and mindful of the goodness that surrounds us.  To remember the successes.  We can take a break from the frustration, focusing our attention on something that can be done with ease to build momentum – returning to the original problem with more energy and creativity.  We might need a nourishing talk with a friend or colleague.  We might not be able to change the external circumstances, but we can change the internal conditions.  And we can remain compassionate – with others and with ourselves – when they experience these symptoms.   

When the air gets heavy, remember when it was light to avoid collapsing under the pressure.

P.S.  Most of us cope with this oscillation between fair and foul weather with some finesse, although I understand that there are millions out there that need to seek professional help.  I am not addressing the real and debilitating disease of depression in this article, but encourage you to find whatever help you need to manage your own pressures.

This article was published on LinkedIn Pulse.

Making Connections: The Payoff of Paying Attention

Jennifer is excited to join AMA PDX's September luncheon to share her insights on making connections and the powerful lessons she learned by paying attention and looking at the world through a marketer's lens. 

Be sure to register to join Jennifer for the September 13th luncheon at AMA PDX. 

Why I volunteer for Marathon Scholars: enabling the dream of a college education

It's back to school and my mind returns to a great organization that I got involved with last year: Marathon Scholars.  We identify high-potential, low-income students in the 4th grade and walk with them, providing them mentoring and a college scholarship, until they complete their bachelor's degree.  We do that through an interesting approach that starts and ends with results in mind.

First, we measure and hold ourselves accountable to the right thing: college graduations. Not college enrollments.  The statistics around low income and first generation college student graduation rates are deplorable and often these same students, with great potential and good intentions, apply and are accepted into college, but then cut their academic careers short of a degree (and the earning potential and opportunity that brings), but take with them student loans that can further burden their future.  Marathon Scholars takes seriously their commitment, and that of the student scholar and their parents, to complete college and is delivering great results.  Scholars in our program are 6x more likely than their peers to complete their degree.

Secondly, we start at the right time: 4th grade.  We select students in the Portland Metro and SW Washington area through an application progress and pair them with mentoring resources to help with individualized guidance, advising, and college prep programming for the next 12 years.  This is critical for students who might be the first in their family to ever consider a college education.  In addition, they receive the first of their college scholarship, donated month-by-month over by a sponsor who also partners in their potential.  4th grade might seem like too early to be talking about college, but it seemed to me to be the perfect time.  Before they must persevere through advanced math and English classes.  Before they start making life-impacting decisions that would later affect their college readiness.  Before they are told that they are not college material, Marathon Scholars reminds them that they are!

I welcome you to join me in this good work.  You can participate in many different ways, giving your time or resources to this great cause.  Our scholars are in need of mentors, who can work with our students at different phases of their educational journey to help them arrive at a new and promising destination: the life of a college graduate!  Contact the staff at Marathon Scholars for more information about volunteer opportunities.

You can also follow Marathon Scholars on Twitter, Facebook, subscribe to this blog, and via our email newsletter which you can access on this website.  While you are there, you can also check out the great video of what mentoring means to these scholars.  And mark your calendar for the upcoming gala fundraiser on March 4, 2017.  We’d love to see you there!

Staying Relevant

"Staying relevant means being willing to run a different business every few years" - Katherine Power

The Brand Experience

A lot of brands are talking about user experience.  Products from Apple, Intuit, and so many others are lauded for their intuitiveness and great customer experience.  But that brand experience extends beyond the product to how the customer is engaged in the store, on the website, in mobile apps, on social media, and the like.  The brand experience is a venn diagram.  You can’t just create a great product, you have to have great service.  You can’t just provide an incredible in-store experience.  You must also have high product quality.  These things all go hand in hand.

Jennifer to Judge the AMA PDX MAX Awards

While American Idol recently said farewell finishing its final season in 2015, it was once the most loved television show in America. Looking back on the early days of the show, we learned that there are three types of judges in this world. 

1. The Simon Cowells - harsh and brutally honest (ahem, rude) with their criticism, but usually accurate
2. The Paula Abduls – sweet and supportive of all the contestants with genuine concern for their success
3. The Randy Jacksons - fun loving, knowledgeable, with a knack for soul 

So, I am set to judge the Max Awards for the American Marketing Association’s Portland Chapter this year and I am wondering what kind of judge I will be.  Coming from the client-side, instead of the agency side, will I be quick to criticize or encourage?  Will I keep my comments short (like the commercial break is approaching) or provide specific guidance?  And like the open auditions, will the entries provide me enough information to truly judge the talent of the submissions? 

Get your submission in by this Friday, August 26th and let’s find out what kind of judge I will be!

Keep Your Word

"The single best way to keep your talent is to keep your word." -Art Gensler

The task is everything, not why.

“The task is everything, not why.” – Swiss Proverb

Is this proverb true or false?

FALSE:  There are lots of reasons why tasks are subject to larger questions about purpose and strategy.  Many organizations have run operational excellence programs only to find that they became more efficient and effective at the wrong things.  They literally sped up their demise by getting better at losing money.  On a personal front, it has been shown time and time again that if employees feel connected to the purpose of the business, they are more loyal, more productive, and are more effective sharing the company’s mission and values to customers.

TRUE: In a world that is obsessed with purpose, it is interesting to think about the dignity of tasks.  Years ago when most lived an agrarian life, the “why” of work was obvious.  You worked to feed and protect your family and tribe.  Human kind has served kings, countries, institutions, and the pleasure of others.  We have served at the pleasure of presidents and of Mother Nature herself.  Tomes have been writing about finding the divine in the mundane tasks of life.  Elias Cairo, the fearless leader of Portland’s charcuterie Olympia Provisions, said it this way.  "If you focus on the tasks, you fall in love with what you do.  And if you fall in love with what you do, it’s why you live."

In your experience, is the proverb true or false?  Or can you, too, debate both sides?

Technology

"Technology, when well-implemented, endows us with super powers." - Samuel Hulick

Jennifer Davis Interviews with Output PDX

Jennifer Davis shares about Planar System's recent successes and about her work with Marathon Scholars in an interview with Hayley Platt on Output PDX. 

Jennifer to Judge the AMA PDX Max Awards

American Marketing Association’s Portland Chapter Max Awards 2016 are underway and Jennifer will be judging the projects to determine the most talented and exceptional marketers in the Portland area. 

The submission window is open until August 26th and they welcome agency submissions in a variety of categories ranging from print to social, from branding to video, from email to integrated campaigns.  The awards will be announced in September.  Nominate your projects at http://ama-pdx.org/maxawards/.

I am joined on the judging panel by industry luminaries Kerry McClenahan, Tore Gustafson, Simon Tam, Bill Piwonka, and Lisa Williams.

What Color Are Your Glasses?

The other day I heard that in the ancient world the most important ideas were documented in poetry and today our important ideas are captured in spreadsheets.  Although not complete accurate, it is thought-provoking.  What important ideas, passions, or world views are wrapped in the allure of facts and figures and presented as data?  I have long contended that a spreadsheet was an exceptional tool for writing fiction.   Not that people mean harm or to mislead, but each time you have to complete a cell you are making a host of assumptions.  To use the vocabulary of Excel, every number in every cell is filtered.  Filtered by your point of view.

It is the time of year when people are wearing sun glasses.  Where I am from in Oregon, we might be even more sensitive after enduring (ahem, enjoying) months of overcast skies.  And each one of our chooses lenses to wear – both literally and figuratively – to view the world.  Some people wear rose-tinted glasses and see the world as friendly and optimistic (and boy, do we need more of those people in our modern world).  Others see it shaded gray.  Others buy specialty lenses that highlight colors or shapes, like the glasses one can buy for golfing that help the ball stand out on the green. 

An interesting thing happens when you wear glasses for a while: you no longer can see the tint.  Your eyes adjust and the world takes on the colors and meaning that you’d expect.  You know the sky is blue, even if your glasses tinge it green.

Our ability to characterize and categorize input (to know what data is important) and to adjust our perceptions to our world view (like our eyes adjusting to tinted lenses), is part of what makes us human.  And this humanity can make us blind to data that doesn’t fit into our table cleanly or points of view that differ from our own. 

I was working on a financial projection spreadsheet recently (that became even more convincing, I must say, because it was accompanied by a PowerPoint slide deck complete with infographic images and charts from a research analyst) and was reminded the power of the lens. 

When you are working on a presentation, you start by asking what you want the “take away” to be.  What do you want your audience or reader to understand better because of the presentation you are giving?  What decision do you want them to make?  And although it is proper presentation planning, that desired outcome begins its work of filtering and coloring the work of the presentation.  To avoid one-sided analysis, I sought alternative input and ended up putting in a few slides that presented an alternative view.  A different way to look at the issue at hand.  To open the door for discussion.  To guard against too narrow thinking.   And to document assumptions.

It was a hard thing to do: to get away from the data and the analysis far enough to see a different picture, to take in different input, to identify what had been “thrown away” to make the clean and compelling point.  But it proved to be valuable and, in the end, will lead to a better outcome. 

So whether your best ideas are captured in poetry or in spreadsheets, it is important to remember that your best ideas might be improved, if you take off your glasses.

This article was first posted on LinkedIn Pulse. 

Exhausted Genius

“I’m exhausted. But the success is glorious.” – Albert Einstein, after presenting his decade-long quest on the theory of relativity, November 1915

Artificial Intelligence Might Not Be Artificial

Elon Musk is afraid of artificial intelligence. He supposes that when the robots take over they might make us housecats. Or maybe we already are? 

Recode Decode's podcast interview with the co-founders of Numenta suggests that fears about artificial intelligence are wrong. 

My Thoughts on Politics

“Words! Words! Words! I’m so sick of words! 
I get words all day through;
First from him, now from you! 
Is that all you blighters can do?”

-          Lyrics from “Show me” from My Fair Lady

The Big Concern

"The biggest concern for any organization should be when their most passionate people become quiet." - Suresh Reddy Pellakuru

Five Things We Should Stop Doing

Often we get obsessed with new ideas, new technologies, and new initiatives that we can forget that a key part of strategy is what you are going to say “no” to. This applies to us individually, in our companies and as an industry.

So, what are five things that I think the AV industry should stop doing?

1. Holding onto the past

Those of us who have been in the industry for a while like to attend the InfoComm trade show and reconnect with old friends and colleagues. This is great and useful. However, we should avoid reminiscing to the point of distraction. We should not romanticize the “good old days.” There are a lot of exciting things going on today in the industry and in order to maintain our enthusiasm, we have to make sure we are not looking backward. We must contain our cynicism, approach innovation with open minds and be constantly advocating for our customers, who may not have our experience, but whose needs are real and fresh.

2. Caring more about the technology than our customers

All the manufacturers and brands in the AV industry are proud of their innovations. The news feed around InfoComm is always crowded with “new,” “never before,” “biggest,” “brightest” and “best.” But all of the speeds-and-feeds don’t matter at all if we are not solving problems for our customers and providing them real value. They don’t care about what adjectives we use to describe our innovations or our business. They care about their own business and they care that we care about their business.

3. Treating every customer the same

Most of us in the AV industry sell to multiple vertical markets and applications. For instance, in the display space customers’ needs for large-format displays or videowalls can span multiple vertical markets. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t provide tailored solutions for different market segments. Although some high-level specifications are applicable everywhere (for instance, inches diagonal, brightness, etc.), other features are uniquely suited for particular uses. As an example, our Planar UltraRes Series UHD/4K display has features that make it perfect for executive offices and conference rooms, where there is a need to switch between full-screen presentations and the view of multiple sources at once. I love to see customers stretching a desktop across the bottom two quadrants of the display and two other sources in the top two quadrants, like a broadcast news feed or a real-time corporate performance dashboard.

4. Hiring people who fit a stereotypical “AV” profile, instead of the profile of our customers

Closely related to #2 and #3, we have a real opportunity to be increasingly relevant to our clients. I mean no offense against the exceptional professionals in the market who are white, male and highly-technical, but the market is changing and the profile of the buyers is changing and we must adapt. Those making AV decisions are increasingly diverse teams. They want partners with technical capabilities, of course. They want partners with experience, naturally. And they want more. They want teamwork, exceptional communication, a willingness to partner with the design community, the ability to speak other languages (literally and figuratively) and a deep understanding of the needs they bring to the table. Our customers want the benefits of diversity, in background and perspective. People buy from people and having a diverse workforce is increasingly important. The work that the Women of InfoComm Network council is doing is a strong step in this direction. We all have a responsibility to think about this as we make hiring decisions and as we develop our employees.

5. Assuming that the pipeline of talent is someone else’s responsibility

We all know that the key to a successful enterprise is the quality of our employees, especially in a service-dominated industry like the AV integration space. They must have the winning balance of technical chops and customer empathy. It’s a hard combination to find and some of the necessary curiosities and abilities are difficult to teach. Most integrators have developed their own hiring practices over time (starting with friends and family, advertising in local communities, poaching from other local firms, etc). There is a huge on-the-job element to most jobs in the field, which is why CTS certification and other tools from InfoComm can prove useful as we develop employees. But taking this further, we all have a responsibility to not just provide job opportunities for those who are already qualified for the work, but to develop the pipeline of talent. This could include partnerships with placement offices at local community colleges and technical schools. This could include offering an internship program for college or high school students interested in display experience. This could include participating actively in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education in the local schools in your area (where your future employees are currently studying). It’s a responsibility we all share, to ensure that the talent pipeline for your business and the AV industry is strong into the future.

This article was originally posted by InfoComm International and was reposted by Rave Publications.