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November 30 Being a local....How often have you heard people say "yeah she has a very good network". Usually they are referring to the people she hangs with - it is simple really A list people hang with A list people and D list people can make their own arrangements. Your local crowd when you are an A List person is helpful because they essentially run the place. They have entry wherever and whenever they wish. The problem is that is the old world - it is not the world of Facebook, Google, eBay, Skype, etc. The new digital economy is networked in a new way - it has little to do with people even when it is Web 2.0 because then it is about the conversations. You can be A List but if you are boring, if you do not keep up with the conversation, if you have no ideas, if you are not a "good experience" to be connected to then forget it. There is a new list being created - it sits on everyone's computer, telephone, hand-held device, etc. This list is not based on people - it is not about who knows who and what they can do for you. This list is first and foremost about ideas - WOW that is a cool idea, what can I do with that in my life? This list is about activities - what is it that I like to do and who out there likes to do that too. Some activities can be performed together in cyberspace but others need three dimensional spaces. This list is crucially about the experience - a good experience together puts you and the other party on the A list. Being local was all about the town square - go to Italy today and you will still see this sense of being local played out every day. Walk to the local bakery, butcher, deli, or general store. Everyone in the village knows everyone - except you because you are the visitor so you are by definition not a local. You are the one trying to buy an ice-cream at 1pm instead of 3pm when the shop opens again after lunch. You are the one who does not fit - sure you are doing the same things the locals are doing and sure you are having an exceptional experience but none of that makes you a local. You could tromp around the village for the next thirty years and not become a local. Being a local in your digital world can happen almost immediately. You have good ideas, you are interested in the same activities as the rest of the users in a cluster, and you provide those users with a good experience. Suddenly you know the new meaning of being a local. Local lessons.....The first lesson to be digested about being a local - get beyond people. The old world was all about people - the new world is all about ideas and experiences. The old world was about networking people - the new world is all about networking ideas. You can no longer define your local network by the people you know when you push a trolley down the aisles of a supermarket. Sure you will meet people there who you know but they do not define you as a local. You are defined as a local by the activities you undertake - the fact you are there doing your shopping is more important than the people who know you. It is a combination of activities and experiences that makes you a local. Let me explain what I mean with a very simple example. At your local cafe you are a regular and you always have a great experience - you are a local because ACTIVITY + EXPERIENCE = LOCAL. You can enhance your early morning coffee experience perhaps if become friendly, on a first name basis, with staff but this is not necessary to become a local. In the past being on friendly terms made you a local - today it does not. You can be on civil terms with a supplier on eBay - you trade with this person (ACTIVITY) and you have an excellent business relationship (EXPERIENCE) so you are a LOCAL. Your eBay local network includes this and other suppliers - their local networks include you and other consumers. Together these local networks form a local economy - an economy that stretches right around the globe. You are an integral part of a global digital economy supported by eBay and a local digital economy supported by your activity and experience. Learning to be local - for the first time all over again....I was angry yesterday - I was totally devastated.... Why? Because the new Opposition Leader in my country was anointed by the old political process. He is a weak leader who will be beholding to the mob. He is a person who will fight yesterday's battles. I see no road to success with him - only more fragmentation and frustration. If he is leader for the next three years then the Opposition will be just that for a very long time. Success in politics today is all about ideas - there are old ideas and there are new ideas. You can not attain political success with old ideas. I am no longer angry - I am focusing on one new idea today. I am learning to be local - for the first time all over again. Is your work local? Is it associated with a local economy? Is it a growing local economy? Is the growth in your local economy tethered to a regional/national economy or the global economy? Is the growth associated with an emerging digital economy? Is the growth being networked? I want to learn more about what it means to be local in today's world. I want to understand that on Facebook I can have friends on my local network who live all around the globe. I want to become comfortable with the fact that being local is not about location - it is about my activities. I want to differentiate between location on or within a network and location as a physical fact. I want to rise above the anger I had yesterday because I felt the old fashioned sense of loss of power (the new Opposition Leader was elected by those who felt a loss of power - they do not accept that the old ideas that kept you in government are no longer good enough to win government again). I want to learn to be local in all its new and wonderful manifestations. I want to learn to be a local for the first time all over again. New economies forming....I live in a nation state with several economies. One is booming - it is based on resources it is an integral part of the global economy. That economy is the envy of all of us. There people are able to earn several times more while doing the same types of jobs. There a shortage of workers persist but not a shortage of work. The distribution of work and wealth is local - house prices are rising to match and even exceed those attained in the other local economies around our nation. The asset bubble is tangible. However there is no really big shift in power or influence towards this community just yet - perhaps it will come but it is not yet evident. The center of power in my nation state is still traditional - it does not reflect contemporary events. Our models of government are clearly lagging global and local economic developments. Concentrations of power at the center is totally at odds with the networked essence of these new economic and social entities. Local provision of public services, infrastructure, and representation is not as responsive nor as efficient when it is decided by distant governments or bureaucrats. Local protection from harm is not necessarily best served by uniformity of legislation, laws, mantras, etc. The nation state is an old idea that will struggle to remain relevant and remarkable in a networked world that seeks to better integrate global and local outcomes year by year, week by week, or minute by minute. November 29 Provision or protection?National governments will continue to lose relevance unless, or until, they change their policy settings and emphasis. The old policy settings were established to protect citizens from themselves, each other, foreigners, etc. Take the case of the Pentagon - it has a proactive protection mechanism so its advice to an incoming President is to go to war. Pentagon officials have been urging Presidents to go to war, with the same policy settings, since the early 1960s when Kennedy was confronted with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Pentagon advisers convinced Kennedy that they could "pin point" bomb the missile solos on Cuba and remove their threat to Americans. Fortunately there were others at the White House at the time who did not go for this type of protection - they opted for diplomacy. Bobby Kennedy led a Cabinet Committee that ignored the Pentagon just long enough to eventually workout an alternative arrangement which included US nuclear missiles in NATO countries near Russia being withdrawn. Part of the protective shield of US missiles was dismantled as a quid pro quo for the Russians as they dismantled their Cuban Missile sites. The Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved but the policy settings remained - today the Pentagon is still on about "pin point" bombing, minimal collateral damage, and the use of overwhelming force to protect American interests around the globe. This old fashioned notion of government as the great "protector" is at the core of the war on terror, drugs, poverty, discrimination, etc. The basic idea is that once you assume control of the national government you have to go around protecting people and to do that you have declare war on whatever it is that you imagine your fellow citizens have to be protected from. In a simpler world it all made perfect sense but today it is pure nonsense. The alternative is provide - yes that right I mean to simply make public provision for people, communities, regions, and nations. Provide public infrastructure - roads, fast broadband, schools, etc. Provide public services - clean water, air, etc. There is a new mission for national governments around the world - this mission begins at home not abroad. It is a mission of provision and the need is local. This change in mission for national governments reminds me of what happened to NASA after the man flights to the moon were discontinued. NASA began a new mission - it called it "mission earth". Rather than looking to the heavens NASA turned its gaze back on earth - the new mission was all about providing new perspectives, experiments, and learnings about earth as seen from space. NASA had to change its mindset, habits, and ways of doing things - it had to change its policy settings. Sure it was still in the space exploration business but it was going to spend its time and resources looking back at earth to see our issues from this new platform of space. The world is changing whether we like it or not - it is different today because of Climate Change. It is also different today because NASA has done so much good work out in deep space. But it is mainly different because so many of the new issues and challenges today are local. When the issues are local you expect them to be more about provision than protection. November 28 Know a good deal when you see it.....I sat there silently watching this group of people at the table talking to their company representatives. I was chairing a meeting for my client - I was thinking two things. First I am not doing this anymore - I am not substituting for my client this is his job not mine. Second I no longer believe in "value adding". Before me were the major players in the supply chain to my client factories. They were being asked to change the ways they think, the ways they conduct business, and the ways they will cooperate with my client in the near and longer-term future. The room was a buzz with talk but it did not involve me - I was floating above it all I had put my proposition to them and they either accepted it or they dealt themselves out of our future plans. All I could do was wait for some one to reply. Finally there was a respondent. "I just want to be sure I get what you are saying here Richard - this is a put up or shut up deal - is that right?" I nodded towards him and the talk started again. Same man again gestured towards me and then began to speak - the room went quiet. "You want my company to enter into an open contract with you to supply our product to you on a just-in-time basis, the details of which are to be worked out to our mutual satisfaction, and all cost savings will be split between my company and your customer - is that it?" Again I nodded and looked around the room. "So we get half all the savings we make by these arrangements and your customer gets the other half - is that it?" A nod from me was all it took. "We are in - what do you want us to sign?" Then there was a rush with everyone talking over each other as they all agreed to this new compact. It was a done deal - I was happy. "We will work through the details of this compact to make sure the savings are maximised for current technologies and systems - then we can all sign on for new five year contracts" I said. "These contracts will be flexible so that future savings can be worked through our new schema" I concluded. The meeting was over. People in China are listening....Just the other day I invited you to contact me - to tell me about your issues (see below).... Well I have begun to hear back - not from the people I expected to hear from but from people in China. Their world is changing and they want and need to be an active part of those changes - even I can figure that one out. The blog I posted recently went like this..... Over lunch today my friend and colleague said I should network what I do well. What I do well is think in unusual ways about issues. Do you have a problem - a business, political, communal, church, organisational, or cultural issue that you are trying to resolve? Perhaps I can help you - if so all you need do is send me an email outlining the problem and I will give you an outline of what I think I can do to help. If I can not help then I will simply tell you. I resolve issues - I usually need a look at the site of the issue but essentially I resolve issues within my head. There is no secret to the way my brain works - it challenges conventions and traditional solutions until it finds a new pathway to resolution.My brain is wired in a funny way and that allows it to find normal what others often find abnormal - this is a great help with issue resolution but not always helpful with household chores, keeping down a regular gig, or being a good team player. Thus I am left with my passion for helping people who want to disrupt their thinking in order to make a breakthrough in their approach to both long-term and pressing issues. If you have a problem you are wrestling with and you would like me to take a look at it simply drop me a line - lipscombe.richard@gmail.com. Revenue and ideas.....Revenue and ideas co-mingle in C20th business models - this century they work best if they are separated. The ideas enhance your consumer's experience. The ideas enforce the "use value" of your product or service. The ideas tweak your delivery in ways that are difficult to imitate. The ideas replace your brand - they cement a new type of loyalty from fickle, pampered, and unforgiving consumers. The ideas are the cutting edge of your business - they are the also the mainstay of your success. The ideas form the battleground for consumers attention and retention. The ideas kill your need for mass marketing and advertising. Many readers know of my continuing "love affair" with Tupperware (see earlier missives on Tupperware for more detail). Tupperware was a C21st product and service launched in the middle of the C20th. Tupperware makes plastic containers - because these containers are full of ideas their "use value" exceeds their dollar costs. Tupperware Parties in homes were the distribution system - product was sold direct to people as early as the 1950s. Tupperware simply dis-intermediated the retailer Tupperware also dis-intermediated the marketers - it used "viral marketing" techniques to spread the stories of two great experiences. First there was the great experience of being at and later hosting a Tupperware Party. Second there was the great experience of using Tupperware everyday in the kitchen and around the house. Finally, this company invented the idea of subscription marketing - you the purchaser gave the Tupperware Company permission to tell you about new products as they were introduced. Tupperware is probably my all time favourite C21st business model because it was invented and innovated in the C20th. Tupperware did another remarkably sensible thing - it separated ideas generation and implementation from the revenue model. The modern equivalents of Tupperware are probably Google, Facebook, Skype, eBay, etc. Tupperware's ideas were gathered from users who were given early prototypes of products - they acclaimed them or innovated on them or extended their usefulness by suggesting more and varied purposes for them. Similarly the party hostesses were given or developed their own ideas about how to maximise the "party goer's experience" of their company. Tupperware held annual jamborees for the most successful hostesses - the attendees were acclaimed and given presents to acknowledge their success. All the time the revenue model attached only to the sale of Tupperware products. The revenue model was simple - sell product to gain revenue. November 27 A liittle idea is often the core of a great experience.....Creating a successful local business is no easier today than at any time in history. Indeed it is harder if you are not across the details of each and every little idea that makes your business a great experience for your customers. Take one little idea away and suffer. Tweak one little idea just the right amount and prosper. My friend loves taking his family, wife and two kids, to a "gold pass experience" at the movies. This is a special theater with first class, fully reclining, seats. Waiter service for all food and beverages including wine. The deal includes as much popcorn and soda as the kids can eat and drink. Without the adults extras, a nice glass of wine and eats, the whole cost is a reasonable number of dollars more than fronting the normal cinema and buying popcorn and drinks - go figure. But when you add the adults expenditure the whole thing cost way more - perhaps four times as much. My friend happily pays that amount to ensure that both the adults and the kids have a great time. What you get is a "great experience" even if the movie sucks. So last time my friend goes to pick up his "booked and paid for" tickets - he is told about a little change in their set up. The kids no longer get access to as much popcorn and drink as they want - they just get one serving of each. A little change - some parents might even prefer this new deal - but a big difference to the total experience. Is there a big change behind this little change? Are they trying to stop families coming to gold class - surely not? My friend complains by email, email, and a further email after the event because he was not told in advance about their "little change". Eventually they send him a complimentary set of tickets - he was happy enough with the compensation but he was still telling me his story. I added to his story I guess when I suggested to him that they had further insulted him by giving him "free tickets" to an event that he was clearly no longer happy to promote. The theater may well be perplexed by his reaction because as they see things they had made a very little change - perhaps my friend was the only one to complain about it but was he the only one who was badly affected by it? Little ideas can mean a lot in a contemporary business - they can be "the core" of a great experience. Idea clusters are messy,....Do you like order, patterned behaviour, predictability of outcomes, and continuity? Well you are not going to like idea clusters because they are messy, ambiguous, unpredictable, and discontinuous. Not much to like there for people who rely on a vision, plan, timeline, and C20th organisation. Clusters are messy because they form and dissipate quickly. They are "experience" based - no not that experience the other "experience". The "experience" I am talking about is the "good feeling" you have when you are part of a high quality event - you like what you feel and you want to have that type of "experience" again. The other experience is time based - you have been an art gallery guide for twenty years, you have read the national news on TV for ten years, you have been a plumber for thirty years. You life's experience at work may have included very few of those "great moments" that you remember and tell stories about as if they were repeated daily. Great experiences are usually fleeting - they are often unexpected and usually unrepeatable because they are not a natural by-product of mass-production and mass-marketing. Clusters form in the park on Sundays. The people in these clusters are here because they had or heard about the "great experience" had on this Sunday last year. Stories abound about that day. Each person has a different story to tell. Each person has a great experience to talk about. Collectively there is a cluster of people who have the same basic idea about what went on that Sunday even though no one person experienced it all and no one person had the exact same experience. So they form an ideas cluster - a cluster that is about capturing a similar experience in the park this Sunday. As it turns out this Sunday is wet - last year it was dry. This Sunday the park was empty by 3pm - last year it rocked until way past sunset. This Sunday the barbecue was malfunctioning - last year the barbecued meats was one of the highlight of the day. This Sunday each person has to go away with a good story to tell or next year the cluster will be much much harder to form. This Sunday this particular idea cluster is really messy and unpredictable - next year it may have to reform around a new core idea. Idea clusters are what local business around the world are going to be based on in the C21st. These idea clusters are formed by consumers - they are based on their experience of the business product or service. These ideas clusters are not based around brand loyalty - there is little or no brand loyalty within these clusters there are only expectations, outcomes, and stories. New ideas clusters....Do you have a new ideas cluster? One specifically set up to generate ideas that can be put into action within your business, community, or Church? If not why not? The world is moving away from old patterns, habits, and processes and so we all need a clutch of new ideas and paradigms. The world of business and politics are locked into a "war on ideas" - forget the "war on talent" it is ideas that count. The ideas needed at the global level relate to access to digital systems - they are about automated process, self-service, timely delivery, professional advice, and passive income streams. The ideas needed at the local level relate to new types of connections to communities - they are about shared experiences, social networks, information distribution, and social infrastructure. Politics has now become more about local issues than ever before because there is no mechanism for global change - the UN is an abject failure. The leadership of Western Nations entrusted to the America is void. The next President of the United State of America will be fully engaged with issues within his or her own borders and after a messy withdrawal from Iraq will get bogged down in the old issues of Middle East wars and the rise of Islam. There is no silver lining to world politics for a generation. Recession in the United States economy could result from policy failures over the past two terms of the Bush Administration. Any economic downturn in the US will make political leadership by its incoming President more difficult. The rise of China and India as wealth creation nation states adds to an already confusing mix of economic and political power changes. Business is on a surge. At the global level the digital economy is a linked entity that feeds off itself. This is an entirely new phenomenon and as such it is almost impossible to predict what will happen - save to say that most theories and paradigms of business have to be recast. The old mass production models have to be consigned to the trash bin on your computer. Everyone starts from "ground zero" - new ideas are the order of the day. Ideas are best conceived in isolation of mainstream thinking, contemporary issues, and past continuities. Once conceived these ideas need to be modeled, prototyped, and actioned. Many of them provide only a temporary platform, they have a use-by-date, they then must be replaced by the product of discontinuity in thinking - before being replaced again. The notion of "built to last ideas" worked well in the last century - this century more and more ideas will have to be "built to flip". If you have an ideas cluster you can be working on the next few as you action the last few and thus you are always eager to flip out the old and action the new. November 26 Can I help you with your gig?Over lunch today my friend and colleague said I should network what I do well. What I do well is think in unusual ways about issues. Do you have a problem - a business, political, communal, church, organisational, or cultural issue that you are trying to resolve? Perhaps I can help you - if so all you need do is send me an email outlining the problem and I will give you an outline of what I think I can do to help. If I can not help then I will simply tell you. I resolve issues - I usually need a look at the site of the issue but essentially I resolve issues within my head. There is no secret to the way my brain works - it challenges conventions and traditional solutions until it finds a new pathway to resolution. My
brain is wired in a funny way and that allows it to find normal what
others often find abnormal - this is a great help with issue resolution
but not always helpful with household chores, keeping down a regular
gig, or being a good team player. Thus I am left with my passion for
helping people who want to disrupt their thinking in order to make a
breakthrough in their approach to both long-term and pressing issues. Loud and local.....There are a clutch of gurus who run around on the global speaker's circuit - they are paid enormous amounts of money to tell us what we already know. In my field they are feted and wildly applauded even though they preach C20th organisation and management theories - stuff we need to unlearn not remember. They bang on and on about leadership, change, culture, vision, people, brands, marketing, value adding, performance pay, etc. These gurus are still delivering yesterday's news. Today's news is fledgling, it is unsophisticated, it is unrehearsed, it is unexpected, it is energising, it is experimental, it is unsettling, and it is still forming. The one thing that is consistent about today's news is it is "loud and local". It is loud in the sense that everyone is talking about it. It is local because it is happening in your neighbourhood. Here is my simple rule for business theory today - if it is not "loud and local" it is moribund. Google is loud and local, eBay is loud and local, Skype is loud and local. Green Tesco is loud and local. Green Wal Mart is loud and local. Pret a Manger recycles food surpluses to needy people - it is loud and local. Are the fruits of your daily labour both loud and local? November 25 Getting to zero waste.....There are businesses today that are trying to eliminate waste - but getting to zero waste is difficult because it needs new thinking and paradigms. Those who prepare and sell food each day know all about the issues of waste. Some can hold over their surplus inventory for a day, week, or month. Some have to either be precise in matching their supply to demand each day or face waste. When the food is top quality then the cost of this waste is high. At Pret a Manger (see my earlier missives for more details about Pret who provide fast food in the slow lane in UK, USA, Singapore, and Hong Kong) they have one person employed full time to keep down their daily waste. Yes his job is to find new ways to reduce waste. They know they can not yet reduce waste to zero so they collect it all up and give it to local charities to feed disadvantaged people. The aim at Pret is to limit their daily surplus to just 3% of their total. In a business that uses fresh coffee beans each day and makes a range of sandwiches and other quality take away food items the task of balancing supply and demand is complex. Pret has a mindset that says "wasted food is not acceptable" and so for them the prerequisite to keep their surpluses within the range of 3% of their total daily load. In future business models will have a zero waste commitment built-in. This will work the same way "zero tolerance" worked to clean up the crimes on the streets of New York. This worked because minor misdemeanors were no longer tolerated - within this context everyone keeps a vigil. The same will be true in a zero waste regime - small things not even noticed today will not be tolerated tomorrow. Fear of the future....Everyone in my country has woken to a new era in our politics - we have a new national leader. He has won government in a landslide. He is a great talker. He is a great presenter of simple ideas. He has a team of celebrities around him and a few very competent people. He is the face of politics in the world after 9/11. I say politics after 9/11 because I believe the world changed that day - not as most commentators have reported but in a very fundamental way. It changed in a simple way - it changed at its roots. The world is now full of people who "fear the future". Electors
in my country fear the future impact of Climate Change, Terrorism, Mass
Migration, etc. But most of all they fear they are losing out in the
"war on ideas". Let explain why they fear the future. They envision a future where housing is not affordable for young (an asset bubble in real estate has put house prices beyond the reach of low income workers). Where jobs are low paid because employers can exploit labour (new laws have boosted job opportunities because they made these jobs the subject of individual contracts). Where education from pre-school to university is second rate. (education standards have fallen dramatically within my country). Where world greenhouse gas emissions are seen to cause our drought, crop failures, etc (drought is causing havoc with agriculture and food prices are rising). Where energy costs are predicted to rise to levels that will severely impact household budgets (the signs are not good for energy costs including petrol). Where internet-based activities rely on fast broadband access and wireless connection (the cost of broadband is relatively high and the service is snail-pace slow). Where hospitals are a total mess (state governments have proved incompetent in delivering health-care). There
is certainly enough to fear with any one of those issues but put them
together and you have an electorate with an irrational "fear of the
future". November 24 Next generation = zero waste.....The next generation's challenge is to move to zero waste. Zero waste is possible with the right mindsets, habits, and ways of being in the world. The new mindset is based on "use value" - there is no "use value" in waste. Waste is a surplus - a surplus that is not used. Waste is the direct result of lax discipline - a disciplined mind can eliminate waste. Waste is not present in a minimalist's world - a minimalist lifestyle does not have to be spartan it rather is free of waste. The new habits are based on discipline - the discipline to remove waste from every process, system, or practice. The new ways of being in the world are to expect zero waste - zero waste is the direct result of the ways things are done. What will be less prevalent in a zero waste world is packaging, presentation, and marketing. Packaging is wasteful unless it provides "use value" - the banana skin is a good example of packaging that provides "use value". A good example of waste is the plastic bag the fruiterer uses to wrap-up your bananas - you can provide a reusable bag for this purpose. Presentation is wasteful in the same way - the presentation of a bottle of wine in a cardboard box. You can rely on the bottle to present your gift of a quality wine - the higher the quality of the wine in most cases the more elaborate and wasteful the wrapping around the bottle. Marketing is wasteful when it does not inform - when marketing is used to differentiate it provides no more "use value" than the fancy wrapping around a quality bottle of wine. Goods and services that are relevant and remarkable need only be brought to the front of our mind by marketing that informs you of their "use value" to you - this is best done by word of mouth promotion from cohorts, peers, or family. Global issue - local connection....Carbon emissions is a global issue - it needs a global solution. Global business is the only mechanism available - political systems are not global in reach or impact. Global business will act if and only if it understands the local connection. No amount of political posturing, threatening, speech making, or legislating will fix the global issues. National governments can enter into treaties, pass laws, and enforce regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions thus they do have an important part to play but they are not the key to this puzzle. The key to this puzzle is to make global business connect with local users, consumers, or customers to ensure they change their purchasing habits. My concern is that consumers are demanding action from politicians - they want us all to elect politicians who tell a good Climate Change story. Electors want their next government to solve this problem for them and for their kid's kids - my question is "what part are these electors willingly playing in curbing their homegrown greenhouse gas emissions?" Establishing a greenhouse gas target is perhaps a positive first step - however it is useful if and only if the government works with business at the local, regional, and national levels to bring about changes to production, distribution, and consumption of carbon. Carbon is needlessly produced and pumped into the air because business still seeks to "value add" instead of providing "use value". The simple example is one I have used before - it is the well document case in the UK of a potato farmer who uses a humidifier to add water to his potatoes before shipping them to the crisp chip factory "is he adding value?" The farmer gets a higher price per potato because it is sold on weight but he also adds to the greenhouse gas emissions in the whole production cycle of a potato crisp. When the factory gets the "water laden potato" it has to remove the moisture, or it has to cook it longer, or cook it at higher oil temperatures. If the potato farmer looked to provide "use value" rather than "value add". Global business can lower costs by being green but the real challenge is for them to gain a market share advantage by enabling their customers to be greener than they otherwise would. It is at the local connection that they can provide information and choice to consumers that reduce the carbon footprint for both sellers and buyers. Go to the Tesco site in the UK to see how one retailer is making a difference with its approach to green retailing. Tesco gives its customers the information they need to reduce their carbon footprint through their purchasing choices. Tesco is also reducing its carbon footprint along its supply chain, within stores, and in its local delivery systems. Tesco is beginning to make a difference - it can become a carbon neutral retailer. November 23 Some old ideas are good ideas - period.I rushed into the room as if this was a matter of life and death. My friend was seated at his desk - he turned to look at me. He was white - he looked like he had seen a ghost. He was trembling. "Thanks for coming Richard!" he splutted. "Are you OK?" I asked because I was now really worried about him. He was a level headed man and certainly not prone to "panic attacks" so what on earth could have brougth this on. "Sit down I have some news to tell you" he says in an erie way. I was now tense because this had to be bad news - I prepared myself for the worst. "I have just been on the phone with the Prime Minister......." he paused took a big breath "he offered me a Ministry". His look was one of total disbelief. "Congratulations Minister - let me be the first to say you have really earnt this honour" I was truly excited for him. "But what do I do now? - I need your advice, please" he went on as if on auto-pilot. "Ring your wife and tell her the good news and then wait - perhaps we should go to the Members Bar and have a drink" I said in my best professional tone. "Yeah, yeah, of course thanks let's do that" he says as he began to dial his home and bekoned me to stay there till he had finished. After the phone call he turns to me "you said wait - wait for what?" "Wait for your Departmental Staff to come and brief you - they will have more than enough things for you to do starting from the time you are sworn in" I go on. "I have only one piece of advice for you - reject all the substantive policy ideas you get in the first month because they will be all the old ideas that have been run by every other Minister before you" I say with a stern face. "After the first few weeks you will know a dud idea when you see it" I continue. "Remember some old ideas are good ideas but you have to own them and put them into context - you are the boss now!" "So let's go get a drink or two and celebrate, eh?" With that I got drunk with the new Minister and together we clarified what he wanted to do with this opportunity. He
was a good Minister - he was cautious when he needed to be and bold
when he had to be. The best thing about him was he hired excellent
staff. My rule for judging Ministers is to look at the caliber of
talent they can attract to and retain in their office. Old ideas are new again.....As you have probably gathered by now - my country is about to elect a new national government. The election campaign has last just six weeks - the campaigning has lasted almost 12 months. The electors have been inundated with slogans, half-truths, reverse logic, and spin. Slogans are the new defense mechanism in politics - slogans enable a candidate to attack with simplistic notions as a front line defense against criticism and critical review of their statements and positions. One side has claimed the other will scaremonger about them - so they do it first and so defend against it before it happens. The end result has been a clean campaign. One side has claimed the other is not credible and has no experience - the other side has retorted with an attack on the voter's experience of the incumbents and dressed up their portrayal in a poor light. One side has dominated the opinion polls for 12 months and look set to win in a landslide - if that happens it will be hard to fathom because the incumbents have run a competent government. The one poll that counts is tomorrow when the voters decide - they will either decide that old ideas are new again and change the government or they will decide that old ideas are simply old ideas and retain the mob they know. Old ideas are new again in politics all around the world today - this is because the context for these old ideas is new or has a new backdrop. The new context is provided by Carbon Emissions, Peak Oil, Terrorism, Drugs, Mass Migration, Drought, Fire Storms, and Raging Seas but the ideas for dealing with them are not new. The "could be" new leader in my country thinks all his old ideas are new again. Ideas about National Governments solving Global Climate Change via treaties or worse unilateral law making. Ideas about wealth distribution derived from a booming global economy that didn't work when the wealth was largely homegrown in a Nation State Economy. Ideas about educating people for C20th mass production in manufacturing when the digital networked economy has machines do most of that work. Ideas and plans that belong in the last century but have been dusted off and presented as if they were relevant and remarkable for this century. My country may be about to "marry" a New Leader - he comes with some old, nothing new, somethings borrow, and nothing blue. He comes with a whole clutch of old ideas that he hopes to make new again. Access and connect....Access the global networked economy. Connect with the local or regional economy. Access has two sides - you must gain and provide access. You will often need to gain access to a specific area of the emerging global economy - to do this you will need digital systems that fit easily into the economic networks that you seek to access. Google gained access to China for its search engine but it had to compromise some of its business principles to do so - gaining access to China greatly expanded Google's influence over an emerging global economy. You will also need to provide access to a specific area of the emerging global economy - to do this you will need digital systems that provide their users with a good fit to their lifestyles. Google needs to provide mobile access to its search engine - it has 34 mobile telephone/device manufacturers now engaged in providing a hand held mobile device that provides access to all iGoogle's free information services. The revenue streams for this provision are attached to the search results or the search footprint you leave behind - for example iGoogle will likely provide you with direct access to sale offerings of things you have always wanted or needed. Connection is local not global. Connection is the equivalent of the "off ramp" of a freeway. Once you leave the global network you hit the local streets and thoroughfares of the national, regional, and local economy. Here it is all about the experience each and every user has of your systems and people. This is where the rubber hits the road. One example is your local Starbucks - it is where you drink coffee and meet friends or do business deals. The connection here is through your "experiences" of the service, people, coffee, and wireless computing. This is the "moment of truth" for you - do you connect with this business in ways that make you want to do it again tomorrow. You do it again tomorrow and the next week and the next month and then you have connected in ways that become an integral part of your mindsets, habits, and ways of being in the world. If your connection is strong you will promote this experience to friends - you will invite them to experience what you have and if they like it they will help you form a cluster of users who will come to support this enterprise. Your cluster will be matched by the cluster formed by the person at the next table - so the experiences of each user is what connects the business to its local customers. |
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