CE#604: You Might Be Running A Stupid Company If…(Fast Company)

When either of us mentions the name of our new book, Smart Customers, Stupid Companies, we get the same reaction: a laugh, followed by a nod.

Everyone gets it. We all know that customers are getting smarter, thanks to smart phones, smart wireless devices, and millions of apps–the vast majority of which entrepreneurs created. But companies have not kept up, and many established firms behave in a manner that customers think is stupid.

Here’s the thing: customers usually don’t take it personally. They just walk away, in increasing numbers: in 2011, nearly 90 percent said they’ll dump a brand after a single bad experience–compared to 68% in 2006.

At the same time, very few executives immediately think, “That’s us, our company acts stupidly.” They don’t see that the ways they’ve always done business are pushing customers out the door. Whoops.

So, to make matters crystal clear, here are five ways–leading indicators, if you will–to help you tell if you’re running a stupid company. Do any of these apply to your firm?

1) If your company closes–ever–you might be running a stupid company.

At many companies, customer service and support is provided only during certain hours: if you call after, say, 6 p.m. Pacific Time, technical support is closed. Seriously? Does the firm really expect that none of their products are installed or used after 6 p.m.?

Full article here

CE#603: Really?: New Windows Phone Ad

CE#602: Terra Sacra Time Lapses (Six years in the making… seven continents… 24 countries)

CE#601: NASA: Risk is our Business

CE#600: The Buddha Song – Jon Anderson- Tour Of The Universe Part 15-

CE#599: Into The Dream – Pat Metheny (Pikasso guitar)

CE#598: Working in America : GE Data Visualization

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CE#597: Chariots of Fire – Vangelis –

CE#596: Please, Can We All Just Stop “Innovating”? (HBR Blog Network)

by Bill Taylor  |  11:33 AM May 30, 2012

There’s something about the culture of business that tends toward excess — in financial markets, to be sure, but also in the “market” for new ideas and management techniques. The dynamic is always the same, whether the idea in question is reengineering, six-sigma quality, or lean production systems: A genuinely original strategy is born in one company or industry, consultants discover the practice and turn it into a marketable commodity, executives in all sorts of other companies race to “buy” the product — and then they wonder why the technique didn’t work nearly as well in their organization as it did in the place that created it in the first place.

I fear that very dynamic is unfolding today with respect to a piece of language and a leadership aspiration that has become the Holy Grail for business thinkers like me.

That piece of language, that aspiration, is innovation.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, which did not get nearly the attention it deserved, made the case that the word “innovation” has outlived its usefulness. “Companies are touting chief innovation officers, innovation teams, innovations strategies, and even innovation days,” the hard-hitting piece noted. “But that doesn’t mean the companies are actually doing any innovating. Instead they are using the word to convey monumental change when the progress they’re describing is quite ordinary.”

Full article here

CE#595: Intelligent Connected Car