lead/marke | ralf schwartz

Steve Blank: 9 Deadliest Startup Sins

"1. Assuming you know what the customer wants

2. The “I know what features to build” flaw

3. Focusing on the launch date

4. Emphasizing execution instead of testing, learning, and iteration

5. Writing a business plan that doesn’t allow for trial and error

6. Confusing traditional job titles with a startup’s needs

7. Executing on a sales and marketing plan

8. Prematurely scaling your company based on a presumption of success

9. Management by crisis, which leads to a death spiral"

Please read the full post with all the detailed explanations here.

Start Disrupting Industries

I had to quote Michael's entire post for you:

"You either build something that makes the world a better place or you don’t. There are complete industries built on creating arbitrary value for the world (investment banking). And there are complete industries built around innovation and creating value for the world (technology).

If you’re an entrepreneur where your success is built around the value you create for the world (e.g. Apple) , you have an opportunity to disrupt entire industries. The world doesn’t need another “Groupon for X”; we need more companies disrupting archaic institutions like healthcare, education, insurance, government, and banking. We need more companies like Uber that receive cease & desist letters from their city to shut down. And more companies like ProFounder, Votizen, BankSimple, Art.sy and Massive Health that utilize the power of the web to democratize entire industries.

So, the next time you think about starting or joining a company, think about your individual impact on the world. You have a real opportunity to make it better." - Michael Karnjanaprakorn

You may prolong Michael's list of industries by energy, automobile, telecoms, publishing houses, ... almost every industry coming to your mind.

[L/M NET] Tim Kastelle > "The Best Social Media Strategy of All Time!"

(L/M NET: the blogged experience & expertise of some of the best minds in Innovation, Brand Engagement, Communication Agility:
Tom - Tim - Konstantin - Helge - Drew - Charles - Anthony - Adrian)

 

I constantly run across blog posts, emails, and spam comments on the blog that promise to tell you the perfect strategy for getting a higher PageRank for your website, or more twitter followers, or a higher Klout score.

And the problem with all of these strategies is that they are faulty. They might results in a higher PageRank, or more twitter followers, or a higher Klout score, but they don’t have any effect at all on what really matters: impact.

And the fact that these “strategies” don’t change your impact is a big problem.

But unlike all of these scam artists, I actually do have the best social media strategy of all time. And because I’m a nice guy, I’m doing to give it to you for free.

Ready?

Here it is:

Do awesome work.

If you do awesome work, it doesn’t matter what keywords you use in the meta tags. People will respond to it.

If you do awesome work, it doesn’t matter what time you tweet about it. People will find it.

Here are the principles of the Do Awesome Work strategy:

• There are no shortcuts. There. Are. No. Shortcuts. If you get twitter followers by following a bunch of random people so that they’ll follow you back, it doesn’t help you spread your ideas, because they don’t care about your ideas. I can’t say this enough – there are no shortcuts.
• You have to do the work. Don’t follow your dreams, follow your effort. All genuine social media success is built on actually putting in the hard work.
• Social media success without awesome work is a pyrrhic victory. Let’s say you do manage to get thousands of twitter followers and a high PageRank, and tons of people go to your site, only to find that the content sucks. Then what? Have you actually gained anything? No.

  You are much better off with a modest number of followers and so-so search results, but with great content. Because then people will engage with it, and you will have impact – and that’s what really matters.

Why can I give this idea away for free? Because the simple fact of the matter is that most people aren’t willing to put in the effort – they want the shortcut.

And that doesn’t do any of us any good.

I want you to do awesome work. Because then I can read it, and be inspired. And I can think about it, and build on it. And if we’re lucky, maybe we can do some awesome work together

So please, follow the best social media strategy of all time:

Do awesome work.

(ralf says:
Do Start Today!)
 

Tim is a lecturer at The University of Queensland Business School. He researches, writes, teaches and consults on topics relating to effective innovation management, with an emphasis on studying innovation networks. He blogs at The Innovation Leadership Network. Twitter: @timkastelle

[L/M NET] Tim Kastelle: "Your Customer Isn’t 'Everyone' - Seven Innovation Thoughts Triggered by Peter Drucker"

(L/M NET: the blogged experience & expertise of some of the best minds in Innovation, Brand Engagement, Communication Agility:
Tom - Tim - Konstantin - Helge - Drew - Charles - Anthony - Adrian)

Of all the management writers I’ve read, Peter Drucker probably generates more interesting quotes per page than anyone. Tom Peters and Joseph Schumpeter come close too. Here are six thoughts triggered by reading his book Management Challenges for the 21st Century:

1. "And yet very few institutions know anything about the noncustomers—very few of them even know that they exist, let alone know who they are. And even fewer know why they are not customers. Yet it is with the noncustomers that changes always start."

   Drucker is making a slightly different point here – that we need to look outside of our normal networks to innovate. True. But also, your customer isn’t “everyone.” Even Coke has more noncustomers than customers in the world. A big part of strategy is making the choice of who your customer will be. This choice is based on value, however:

2. "The starting point has to be what customers consider value. The starting point has to be the assumption—an assumption amply proven by all our experience—that the customer never buys what the supplier sells. What is value to the customer is always something quite different from what is value or quality to the supplier. This applies as much to a business as to a university or to a hospital."

   Innovators often don’t know what their idea is for. This is a strong argument for two things: empathy and experiments.

3. "Everything improved or new needs therefore first to be tested on a small scale, that is, it needs to be PILOTED. The way to do this is to find somebody within the enterprise who really wants the new. As said before, everything new gets into trouble. And then it needs a champion. It needs somebody who says: “I am going to make this succeed,” and who then goes to work on it. And this person needs to be somebody whom the organization respects. This need not even be somebody within the organization. A good way to pilot a new product or new service is often to find a customer who really wants the new, and who is willing to work with the producer on making truly successful the new product or the new service."

   New ideas need champions. This is a critical part of piloting or prototyping, which in turn drives experimentation. This is one of the best ways to find out what customers actually value – testing.

4. "Every organization operates on a Theory of the Business, that is, a set of assumptions as to what its business is, what its objectives are, how it defines results, who its customers are, what the customers value and pay for. Strategy converts this Theory of the Business into performance."

   Theories of Business need to be tested – this is how to design the experiments. Start with the assumptions in your business model, then test them to see if they are true.

5. "An entrepreneur who does not learn how to manage will not last long. A management that does not learn to innovate will not last long. In fact, … business—and every other organization today—has to be designed for change as the norm and to create change rather than react to it.

   The main reason is that a policy of systematic innovation produces the mindset for an organization to be a change leader. It makes the entire organization see change as an opportunity."

   The consequence of this is that innovation is a process, which can be managed.

6. "The first change policy, therefore, throughout the entire institution, has to be Organized Abandonment. The change leader puts every product, every service, every process, every market, every distribution channel, every customer and end-use, on trial for its life. And it does so on a regular schedule. The question has to be asked—and asked seriously—“If we did not do this already, would we, knowing what we now know, go into it?” If the answer is “no,” the reaction must not be “Let’s make another study.” The reaction must be “What do we do now?” The enterprise is committed to change. It is committed to action."

   If we were starting today, would we do this? This is the blank slate approach described by Jeffrey Phillips, and it is an important tool for evaluating your business model.

7. "To try to make the future is highly risky. It is less risky, however, than not to try to make it. A goodly proportion of those attempting to do what this chapter discusses will surely not succeed. But, predictably, no one else will."

   Or, as Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” You improve your chances of succeeding by systematically looking at the drivers of innovation opportunities.

Here it is in a nutshell: Innovation drives change, and change drives growth. We can’t know in advance what will work, so we need to use experiments to discover what customers value. It’s risky, but less risky than doing nothing.

(ralf says:
How to comment on this? With just another quote!

8. “People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.” - Peter F. Drucker)

Tim is a lecturer at The University of Queensland Business School. He researches, writes, teaches and consults on topics relating to effective innovation management, with an emphasis on studying innovation networks. He blogs at The Innovation Leadership Network. Twitter: @timkastelle

The Ultimate Brand & Business Challenge: The Digital Dump

Via GOOD. Click for a larger view.

Mark Zuckerbergs Erfolgsregeln @wiwo

Ich habe in unserer Wiwo-Kolumne mal etwas zu Mark Zuckerberg, dem Netz und der Dringlichkeit des Wandels für alle anderen geschrieben: Mark Zuckerbergs Erfolgsregeln.

brandpoems(3): Dear Brand, "If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They're not Big Enough"

Via ralfschwartz. Via workman.

brandpoems(2): Dear Brand, "Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are."

Via nocturnality.

brandpoems(1): Dear Brand, "If you want to be an actress, you need to have something the others don't."

Via bastardette.

Puma aiming to market compostable Trainers, T-shirts and Bags

"We are confident that in the near future we will be able to bring the first shoes, T-shirts and bags, that are either compostable or recyclable, to the market," Puma boss Franz Koch told the German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche.

He explained that the company was working with partners on developing products on the principle of the "cradle-to-cradle" design. "It follows two circuits, the technical and the biological: I can use old shoes to make new ones or something completely different, such as car tyres," said Koch, who has led the sports clothing company since July.

"In the biological cycle, I can make shoes and shirts that are compostable so I can shred them and bury them in the back garden. We are working on products that meet these two criteria."

Via theguardian.

tumblr says: "Protect The Net" (against SOPA)

"Congress is considering two well-intentioned but deeply flawed bills, the PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

As written, they would betray more than a decade of US policy and advocacy of Internet freedom by establishing a censorship system using the same domain blacklisting technologies pioneered by China and Iran." - tumblr

 

"Tumblr just put up this site warning people about the dangers of PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Read up, kids. This is important." - shortformblog

Via flavorpill.

We Love @BLYSS_choc - Guess Why!?

01 - Because we love great chocolate.

02 - Because we love a good story.

03 - Because we love fantastic pictures.

04 - Because we admire great branding.

05 - Because we love focus.

06 - Because we love consistency.

07 - Because we love authenticity.

08 - Because we love true entrepreneurship.

09 - Because we love a good strategy.

10 - We love vision. We love passion.

And - last but not least - because we love, we truly and deeply love, to discover a brand, a company, an entrepreneurial spirit NOT following 30.000 people to get 30.000 followers.

This fact - you might judge it minor - made me have a look at the product when CemB retweetet BLYSS_choc.

This small fact makes all the difference between truly building a brand and mere selling a product as fast as you can.

Lyss, we wish you all the best with BLYSS!
Only great people will build great brands! 

Steve Jobs' 10 Commandments to Manage his Creative Process

Via hitenshah.

By Leander Kahney. Click for a larger image.

See also Dieter Rams: "We Design Nature" - Video and his 10 Principles of Good Design.

Dieter Rams: "We Design Nature" - Video and his 10 Principles of Good Design

Please enjoy Dieter's "Objectified" - and reflect upon his below 10 principles of good design.

And please test every principle against the great (or not so great) design which comes to your mind - even (or especially) your own product's design.

These 10 principles - as a poster - should beautify every designer's, agency's and marketeer's wall!

 
Via Helge Tenno, Member of lead/marke NET.

Dieter Rams' 10 Principles of ...

Steve Jobs: "Products, not the Profits"

"[T]he products, not the profits, were the motivation. ... It's a subtle difference, but it ends up meaning everything." - Steve Jobs

Via.

[L/M NET] Tom Fishburne > 8 Types of Leader

(L/M NET: the blogged experience & expertise of some of the best minds in Innovation, Brand Engagement, Communication Agility:
Tom - Tim - Konstantin - Helge - Drew - Charles - Anthony - Adrian)

 

@TheThirdClub - or: To All the Brave Entrepreneurial Wo/Men: Creativity & Innovation Desperately Need You!

(Note: This is a cross post with my distinctive leadership blog)

We just founded The Third Club!
Get to know more about it here (ya, it's German).

(Polaroid by Douglas Wilson > available here) 

At the moment we are 12 brave wo/men - but want to allure all brave wo/men out there! Just to give you a very small hint on what we are talking about please inhale the following list.

(Yeah, I know, some 20.000+ great people are not on that list.
But you do know: there is no definitive list of great people.)

This is not about names. The personalities beyond them will give you a pretty good picture what I am talking about. They are the wild-card characters of entrepreneurial personalities and spirit, of motivation, engagement, and dedication I would love to see @TheThirdClub:

Harley Davidson - The Other Apple

Once in a while you stumble upon another Apple. There will for some years be no other Steve Jobs - but there are some Apples out there.

Harley Davidson is one of them - even if you did not see them as such in the first place. But ask just one Harley fan!

[L/M NET] Adrian Ho > Think(ing) Different.

(L/M NET: the blogged experience & expertise of some of the best minds in Innovation, Brand Engagement, Communication Agility:
Tom - Tim - Konstantin - Helge - Drew - Charles - Anthony - Adrian)

I have a long history with computers. I got a Sinclair Z81 for my birthday one year and the 16K ram pack for my birthday the next. I did maths and computer science at college where we learned Pascal on Vax mini computers. My history with computers became intertwined with my history as a planner when in 1992,  I started working on my first account: AST Research, a now defunct PC manufacturer and shortly afterwards Sun Microsystems, a now defunct workstation/server manufacturer.

In 1996,I started working on Microsoft and the next year Steve Jobs returned to Apple. By then, Apple had ceased to be relevant – our sights were set on companies like Netscape, Sun and Oracle. Along with most others I assumed that it would be too little, too late. And when the “Think Different” advertising launched, my assumption was confirmed.

I remember asking my colleagues, “How can an ad about what you are, a thing that everyone already knows, change what you think about a company?”

In fact, I don’t think it did. It was everything that came after that changed how we think about that ad.

And for me, it was everything that came after that changed how I think about computers, about technology, about advertising and about marketing.

Goodbye Steve.

(ralf says: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." RIP Steve.)

Adrian is founding partner of Zeus Jones a branding company believing actions speak louder than words and that modern brands are defined by what they do not what they say. He speaks (and writes) regularly about non-communications based models for marketing & branding. Twitter: @adrianho

"Jobs taught his entire organization to play in the span of product generations rather than product introductions"

"Jobs is ahead of his time in other ways too: He has taught his entire organization to play in the span of product generations rather than product introductions.

Apple designers say that now, each design they create has to be presented alongside a mock-up of how that design might evolve in the second or third generation.

That should ensure Apple’s continued success for a long time, aided, of course, by the tremendous momentum that Jobs’s leadership has provided the company."

Via.