Friday, August 29, 2008

Bloomberg gaffe - Apple's Steve Jobs is not dead


In late August the venerated Bloomberg News discovered that it was definitely not immune to electronic transmission errors. On August 27, the international news service mistakenly shot up to its wire service a draft (and incomplete) obituary for Apple CEO and galactic PC icon Steve Jobs. The gaffe was quickly discovered and instantly retracted, but not before recipients had captured the text and posted it on the Gawker blog.

The pre-development of obits for major business, political and social figures is a common long-time practice of major news agencies, and the Bloomberg publishing mistake was not the first time this has happened. It does, however, eloquently underscore the downside dangers of instantaneous communication capacities and the urgent need for internal safeguards.

While such lapses can be passed off as innocent mistakes, the Jobs posting had a little bit of a darker side, as major business media reported earlier this year that Jobs did not disclose a potentially mortal battle with pancreatic cancer for some nine months earlier in this decade. The same accounts openly asked whether this nondisclosure might represent a possible violation of SEC rules (or least the intent of same), since Apple is a publicly traded company.

The lesson? Think twice before clicking "send."

Thursday, August 07, 2008

The Big Idea Strikes Back


For a summary of what can transform companies, I humbly suggest that you check out my Chicago column (published today at http://www.midwestbusiness.com/news/viewnews.asp?newsletterID=19365)

Nanotechnology, Indiana and Illinois - A Region to Watch


A new center for the awaited sub-atomic revolution may well be spiralling into existence in possibly the most unlikely of places. If Sean Murdock, the former McKinsey wunderkind (now heading up the Nanobusiness Alliance - see photo), and Todd Vare, a Barnes & Thornburg attorney (fresh off of a major U.S. Supreme Court win), have anything to say about it, that new international development hotbed will bubble up in America's Heartland.

As Vare told the crowd at the monthly meeting of the Venture Club of Indiana on August 7, "Indiana is well-positioned to develop, explore and lead nanotechnology." Murdock opined that nanotechnology represents "the frontier of innovation," adding that with assets in the form of Northwestern University, the Argonne National Laboratory, and the James Franck Institute at the University of Chicago, the Windy City "is already a world leader."

Combine the All-Galactic nano resources at Purdue and Notre Dame with the neighboring Illini sub-atomic muscle, and there might well be something very much worth watching.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

What is Google thinking?


As a $20 billion industry, digital marketing definitely represents a maturing focus, and AD-TECH Chicago this year directly reflects that. The Chicago version of AD-TECH (a traveling interactive Web-related best practices conference that spans Asia to Europe over a six month period) serves up top agency and search-related talent. This year the absence of the former "rah-rah" nature of interactive marketing is most apparent. As I write this in the AD-TECH press room (fittingly enough), the conference is ending its first day after featuring leading figures from digital marketing agencies and companies (E.g., Leo Burnett, Avenue A/Razorfish, Google, Yahoo, et al), and we're waiting to hear from Clay Shirky ("Here Comes Every Customer - The Former Audience Is Talking About You") about how a company's "former audience" (E.g., former consumers, customers, partners, etc) directly influence how new customers or stakeholders may choose to engage with you online or elsewhere. I plan to publish a few short white papers on the MEK Web site to chronicle ostensibly the best and the brightest from the interactive world, so won't go further here today into the details of social media, performance marketing and Web 2.0/3.0. With one exception.

In the seminar titled "The End of the Banner Ad," one PowerPoint slide -- and one PowerPoint slide only -- detailed the takeaway messaging about how the consumer -- whether retail or B2B -- controls how he or she consumes any given message. The slide illustrated a marketing mindset more than anything, so here's the text:

-With, Not At
-Earned, Not Bought
-Democratic, Not Dictatorial
-Involvement, Not Exposure
-Services, Not Communications
-Collaboration, Not Linear

Worth thinking about, especially as in a dramatically sagging economy, one size definitely does not fit all, and consumers increasingly possess near-total control to the "brand experience" that you or company wishes to expose them to.