Why Winners Win

Winning businesses win by innovating.

But innovation that isn't communicated doesn't cut it.

Winning businesses communicate their innovations to customers.

I pity the tens of thousands of truly talented technologists, engineers and managers who don't "get" the inexorable truth of that statement.

They will innovate. And they will still lose.

Why? Because they'll skimp on marketing or—worse—leave the job to juniors.

The solipsist asks, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

The marketer asks, "If a business comes up with an innovation and no one hears about it, does it have a real innovation?"

Steve Jobs (as quoted in the new biography Steve Jobs) said it well.

"You can't win on innovation unless you have a way to communicate to customers."

How to Handle a Rick Perry Moment

Bowing to the neuroscientists, The Washington Post calls Rick Perry's forever-famous senior moment a "retrieval failure."


I asked professional speaker Thom Singer what advice he'd offer the luckless governor.


Rightly or wrongly, "People are judged by how they speak in public," Singer says.  "We determine the level of a person's intelligence by the way they perform on stage."  


Thinking on your feet is learned skill, Singer insists.  But, because a moment like Rick Perry's "can happen to anyone," he offers public speakers these three tricks of the trade:


Never "wing it."  "Any time you wing it, you're likely to fail.  So don't.  Practice, practice, practice.  The best way is to role-play with someone else."

Keep your written talking points handy.  This is especially wise for times when you have to go "off script."  "If you get derailed, your talking points can get you back on track easily."

Take ownership of your gaffe.  When you have a Rick Perry moment, "don't try to avoid it.  Take ownership of your slip-up right away.  Poke fun at yourself and your audience will judge you favorably."


Postscript: At least one neuroscientist, Dr. David Langer, recommends coffee.

Cheap Vindication

If you work in a creative job, you learn quickly to accept rejection.

If not, you don't last very long.

Some of my own favorite creations have, in fact, never seen the light of day. 

They were rejected by clients.

No big deal.  There's always more where that came from.

Still, sometimes, deep down, the rejections bother you.

As Lance Armstrong said, "A boo is a lot louder than a cheer.” 

Once you're past the sting, you're left harboring the feeling it's them, not you, who's missing something.

So it's consoling to read, about a third of the way through Walter Isaacson's new biography, Steve Jobs, that Apple's board of directors detested the now-legendary TV commercial "1984" when Jobs first showed it to them.

They insisted it be trash-canned.

Jobs and his ad agency defied the board (as chairman, he could afford to).  The spot aired during the Super Bowl. 

The rest is history.

Relishing the fact that "1984" almost never aired because a bunch of stodgy executives didn't "get it" is cheap vindication.

I'll take it anyway.

Word Limit

I enjoy consultant Alan Weiss' monthly e-newsletter Balancing Act.

Weiss is the Andy Rooney of the corporate boardroom.

In the current edition, he bemoans our poor command of language.

"I’ve always believed that language controls discussion, discussion controls relationships, and relationships control business," Weiss writes.

Ain't it the truth.

"As I listen to interviewees on talk shows, protestors on the streets, politicians on the stump, and athletes on a celebratory high, I’m aghast at how poorly they reflect their conditions and circumstances," Weiss writes. "Many are functionally inarticulate. It seems like those with the least ability to express themselves miraculously and insidiously wind up with the opportunity to face the largest audiences."

It's ironic that business professionals (salespeople, in particular) spend most of their time every day talking.

But how much time do they devote to sprucing up their verbal "tool bags?"

"How many new tools are you acquiring?" Weiss asks.  "Or do you still have the same old, tattered bag you had ten years ago?"

As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."

From the People Who Brought You the Wall Street Collapse

From his grave, the late novelist Joseph Heller must be giving direct marketing advice to JP Morgan Chase.


Today my wife and I received a letter from Deb Walden, Chase's executive vice president of cardmember experience.


The letter opens with good news: "Currently, our records indicate that you are not being mailed any offers from Chase."  Thank God for small favors.


It then informs us that, in order to continue enjoying this privilege, we must respond.  If we fail to respond, Chase will begin mailing us offers.


The list of offers comprises things like insurance, investments, credit cards, home equity loans and annuities.


Deb even includes a deadline (December 15) and warns us that, by failing to respond by the deadline, "you may begin to receive offers in the mail about these products and services."


May receive?


So let me get this straight, Deb.


Unless your customer opts out, he will automatically receive direct mail offers from Chase after December 15.  That is, unless Chase opts not to send those offers.


So, to be clear, we must opt out or Chase will send us direct mail offers.  That is, unless Chase opts out, in which case it will not send us those offers.  Or it may send us some, but not all, offers.


Deb concludes her letter with a waiver.  (Deb can't help herself; she's a banker, after all.)


"Responding to this letter will ensure that the mailing options you select will remain in effect for five years after we receive your request.  After five years, or if you move to a new residence, you'll need to renew all of your mailing options."


Well, Deb, you've succeeded in one thing at least.  


You've erased any temptation we might have had to move in the next five years.