John Winsor

Nobody Cares

I've been thinking a lot lately about how egos get in the way of getting good work done. Sometimes, it's trying to hold onto to something that you should let go of, like a definition of yourself. While I was contemplating this I saw a bumper sticker:

"Nobody Cares if You Tele."

In this case, Tele means telemark skiing. As a long time tele-skier myself, I've been a victim of the self-righteousness that the sport breeds with sayings like "Free your Heels and Free your Mind."

The bumper sticker made me laugh at myself. Maybe that's the best way to get beyond your ego.

It's good to remind myself that nobody cares that I work at CP+B. It's about all about the work.

Going Slow to Go Fast

I’ve been feeling the need to get in shape lately. Sure, I’m in shape but not the kind of shape that I used to be a few years ago. You know the drill. To get a good baseline, I decided to go do a Lactic Threshold test with a VO2 max test. I had forgotten how painful the experience of taking these tests are. From getting your finger pricked every few minutes as you’re trying to push yourself hard to having to breath through a tube as your nose is plugged while you start to see stars from pushing so hard.

Well, the gratifying news was that I scored higher than I did 7 years ago. That made me feel good. But there was something more surprising when I really started to look at the numbers closely. It seems I’ve been doing what most other middle-aged, type A, males do. We train too hard. Every day, with limited time, we go out and try to see how fast we can go for 30 or 60 minutes. The result is we never get anywhere.

Since the tests I’ve got a new program. Ride slow 85% of the time and ride really fast (for me) 15% of the time. The slow riding is not only so much more enjoyable but it’s giving me the chance to rest up for when I really push myself. As a result I’m getting fitter. So, by going slower, I’m going faster. I’m not sure why this feels like a new revelation. I’ve heard it a million times when I used to train. It’s just that the results are so obvious. It creates such good momentum.

It’s the same thing in business. I have a tendency to go at the same semi-fast pace all of the time. Now, by going slower in business, I’m finding I can go so much faster.

The Bespoke Fiat?

A couple of days ago I was pondering the word Bespoke and what it might mean beyond fashion or furniture. Well, this month's Wallpaper magazine heralded the Fiat 500 with an article entitled, Small Wonder: With a multitude of design options, Fiat's new 500 brings bespoke to the masses. I guess with 549,936 possible options it could be bespoke. But isn't that a stretch?

Cruel Shoes

Getting a pair of new dress shoes provides a cruel way of realizing that while we might think we live in a large world we operate at a very minute level, subconsciously. I know it sounds strange but I had problems this week as I was getting used to the length of my new shoes. While I was slightly aware of the annoyance of running into things it wasn’t until I almost tripped going up an escalator that I realized that I had been subconsciously trained to step closer to things with shorter shoes.

Soon after I grabbed a copy of The Herald Tribune newspaper and noticed that it felt weird. While many US papers have cut their width by a few inches The Herald Tribune remains a true broad sheet. It now feels so unwieldy.

The same thing happens with brands. We become such creators of habit. It takes an incredible amount of cultural momentum to make someone change their mind.

Expanding the Peripheral View

It's easy to fall into the trap of competing against your current competitors for the attention of consumers. Yet, culture has a funny way of changing things up and injecting a new competitor into the mix. Witness the box office slump last weekend. Compared to last year box office ticket sales for the first weekend in October were off 27%, pulling in $80 million, making it the worst October weekend since 1999.

What happened?

Could it be that Halo 3, launched September 26 with first day sales of $178 million, have anything to do with it? Many movie execs think so.

As culture mashes things up, what else should be in your peripheral view?

Quote of the Day

"G.M. has backed away from defining moments for generations. And now somebody there has finally said, "We have to do this because it's a new era."

- James P. Womack, author, The Machine That Changed the World

CP+B, The First 90 Days

It's been a little over 90 days since Radar has become part of Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. And, it's been one hell of a fun ride. Having the experience of selling a few companies before and going through post acquisition transitions, I was ready for at least a few hiccups. There have been none.

That's probably due to the fact that the cultures of both places, built on honesty, intensity, speed and hard work, are the same. CP+B is an incredibly entrepreneurial place. While it creates some manic energy it also has intensity around the creative process that is so necessary for anything great to happen. This place is truly focused on creating cultural change through marketing.

Every week the status quo is destroyed, to be replaced by the relentless evolution of ideas keeping it one step ahead of popular culture.

The journey continues.

Radar People versus Gyroscope People

Fellow CPBer, German Dziebel, sent me this interesting note about how to catagorize people.

In 1950 sociologist David Riesman published a book with a paradoxical title The Lonely Crowd. He identified two kinds of people: inner-oriented and other-directed. Inner-oriented people followed their internal gyroscope, while other-directed people used a then-new powerful military gadget called “radar.”

Gyroscope people tend to follow tradition, they keep intact early childhood memories and grow up confident and often headstrong. Radar people are sensitive to the expectations and preferences of others. Radar people seek love, not so much respect. For the post-World War II U.S., Riesman predicted the submersion of gyroscope mentality and the rapid advancement of the Radar people with the corresponding rise of the importance of leisure, entertainment, consumerism, and creativity.

We are all very happy to be those Radar people. These two kinds of people may represent different business strategies that are equally appropriate depending on the particular time and place. Keith Biondo ponders, “Do [companies] navigate their way to survivability and prosperity by bouncing off you -- their customers -- providing anything and trying everything to that purpose? Or do they stay true to their gyroscope, their core expertise, offering select solutions, seeking to outflank economic privation by out-niche'ing the competition and becoming a long-term trusted partner to their customers?”

A company with a strong ongoing momentum may opt for the gyroscope strategy for it develops faster than the rest of the economy and tends to spawn its own loyal customers; a company going through a crisis has to be able to be flexible, somewhat flirtatious, and try different ways to respond to the demands of the customers.

The Power of Fast

I have one constraint that I constently fight. Time. I never have enough. And, I get bummed when I have to wait. Airtight does a great job of illustrating this point.

So my main piece of advice, from a lifetime of using and building computer apps is - make it faster.

Make it smaller
Make it lighter
Sacrifice unnecessary functionality
Preload when possible

Give the user instance response. If you can’t do that, then at least give them instant feedback with some kind of front-end animation, and try to accurately indicate how long the user will be waiting.

Word of the Day

Visceral Realism - A movement started by poets in Mexico City bent on literary terrorism.