Same day as prior post: and here is an example of some of the risks of outdoor!!!
I stopped laughing out loud long enough to capture this “message” — is it about the hot dogs?
I was walking north from downtown on Manhattan island… to an appointment with a consulting prospect. I was stopped by this outdoor (a mural, painted on the side of an office building in lower-Manhattan, as I recall — perhaps midtown).
Fantastic visual –that spiral track creating such a fantastic 3D effect, combined with simple copy: Speed Racer in the vortex; “Go! Speed Racer” at the bottom. Any doubt that this movie is a special effects thrill ride? No doubt at all and that’s why it’s great “outdoor.”
Certainly there can be no arguing that timeless classics such as Gilbert & Sullivan’s opera have achieved “durable promise of value.” On that basis, I include this photo of my niece, in the lead role of LaGuardia Arts’ production of “The Mikado,” as Yum Yum. More from the show for those interested at my photo blog.
Certainly there can be no arguing that timeless classics such as Gilbert & Sullivan’s opera have achieved “durable promise of value.” On that basis, I include this photo of my niece, in the lead role of LaGuardia Arts’ production of “The Mikado,” as Yum Yum. More from the show for those interested at my photo blog.
I have worked for or with many companies over the years, and there is one stunning and consistent trap that organizations fall into: they bury their “enduring promise of value” so deep within their corporate storage unit, and lock the door shut so securely, that that message seems never to make it outside the firm and into the presence of prospects and customers.
Call it inertia, call it the clarity and simplicity prevention reflex — but it happens and it happens often.
I have developed a workshop whose purpose is to help a leadership team refine and validate their business vision and mission; articulate clear and measurable business goals; develop precise target prospect definitions; and build message platforms to address those target prospect audiences. It is not a complicated process or methodology, but it helps the team learn (or remember) that business focus must be extremely clear and easy to understand. When this is achieved, the company can clear away the distractions, clutter, and resource sinks. The organization can get moving toward a known and desirable goal. Marketing happens with clarity and purpose.
Sometimes a company’s raison d’etre needs to be liberated; sometimes it needs to be flossed and cleaned up; sometimes it needs a “gut / rehab.” If the executive team continuously validates its mission, vision, and objectives against company performance, stretching that Elastic Brand can occur without breaking.
I crossed a line last week when I departed from my usual professional subject area and flamed aggressively about the performance of my town zoning board in receiving my request to repair and restore a screen porch on the back of my house. Above is a photo of one of the support posts — whose job is to hold the porch up off the ground.
So I’m going to close the book on complaining about local public servants — not because the Andover Twilight Zoning Board under the leadership of Stephen D. Anderson and with Nancy K. Jeton’s support has earned any reprieve, but because Kaija Gilmore, Inspector of Buildings, took time to meet with me today and review photos of my porch, discuss remediation to some of the problems, and classified the project a “repair.” You see if you cross the line from “repair” to “remove and replace,” you invoke regulations and requirements that make your hair hurt. In my case, requiring a $1500 certified plot plan (thanks Kaija for saving me this significant “flush money” expense), requiring a hearing before the zoning board to dig into setback laws (despite prior building department and zoning board approval of the original structure… whose footprint I was only going to reduce). Pending the outcome of that mercurial group, I may have had to stop at “remove,” if you know what I mean.
Thanks, Kaija, for restoring what was left of my faith in the building / zoning process in Andover, MA.
I have really been enjoying myself since becoming a “free agent” a few months ago. My topic today has to do with how I’ve created a personal subnet, interconnecting communities of interest to me, using really simple and mostly free tools.
This post is originating from Flickr. I’ll explain that later — but I write that up front so that you can understand this post will be edited in a couple of sittings… so keep your eyes pealed for additions in coming, well, minutes.
I’ve switched over to WordPress now, where the blog is hosted. I did a “blog this” from Flickr to get the ball rolling.
So let’s talk about the SWIRL. Since leaving gainful employment as CMO / Marketing VP, I’ve been getting my hands dirty with the tools of today’s worldwide web. I fiddled with Typepad, which still hosts my photo blog. I joined the Flickr community, as I had recently picked up the camera again and gotten to work taking photos. I started posting here more frequently, and back in March spent a few days putting together an e-book which hundreds of folks have now downloaded (I know them ain’t big numbers — David Scott has that game figured out for sure!).
I’m also on FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube. Oh and Plaxo but my guess is that will fall by the wayside soon.
So what’s this SWIRL deal and why should you care?
When I started spending more time with these online tools, I was obsessed with having boundaries around my multiple personalities. I wanted the blog to be all business all the time. I didn’t think the Flickr community needed to know much about my professional life. Facebook was a little less clear… and perhaps what drove my decision to abandon this “many walled cities” approach.
Now I cultivate links across these online communities and tools intentionally, and the effect has been incredible. I use images from Flickr, when they are appropriate, front and center on the Elastic Brands blog. There is a link right back to Flickr up there, as you may have already noticed. I issue a tweet when I’ve published my “PAD4T” — Photo A Day For Today. I “tweet” when I post on the blog. I post my Flickr photos on my PhoBlo, synopshots.com, where I expand on the techniques a bit, and where I post hundreds of other photos which I don’t believe “fit” within my Flickr presence. I often take photos while on business trips, if I blog on that topic I put a link in the description on Flickr.
In other words, I am actively encouraging interconnectedness among domains which I have no reason to believe share much common interest.
But it works. And it works big time. Through Facebook, a former colleague started to notice my photos, and wanted some advice about getting started as she was raising young children and wanted pointers and tips. Later, she found the link for my e-book, Marketing Unbound, which she read with interest. Another colleague (mutual to us) was about to start as CEO at a new company, and was looking for seasoned advice as he ramped up. Bingo. From the photos, to an e-book, to a strategic advisory engagement in just a couple of days.
And of course the metrics on every property are growing — but that I attribute to simple, common sense SEO and good hard work, but I’ll take that too.
There comes a time when your outrage reaches the point of no return. Where you need to get on what platform or soapbox you have and cry FOUL!
In this case, the platform is a crumbling screen porch, but I won’t let that deter me.
I bought a house in November, 2007. It was built in 1982. When it was built, a screen porch was included on the back side of the house, facing a beautiful open space now preserved in a trust as a side effect of a nearby subdivision. It hasn’t been maintained properly. Here’s what it looks like:
So if you want to be a law-abiding citizen, you follow procedure: go to the building department of the town government, managed in my case by Kaija Gilmore, and get advice. Her advice, though I paraphrase:
“The screen porch exists; you want to repair it and strengthen it; go to Zoning for a special permit but I don’t see any problem.”
Tonight (May 8th, 2008) my file came before Zoning for review. Zoning board is chaired by a local lawyer by the name of Stephen D. Anderson. Having paid my $315 fee and filed numerous copies of plans, drawings, and completed town zoning board forms, I presented my humble case.
“I would like to repair my screen porch, and in the process remove some of the structre (the adjacent decking) thereby reducing its proximity to the property’s rear boundary. By the way beyond the rear boundary is PRESERVED LAND which will NEVER BE BUILT UPON. The screen porch has been standing unmaintained for TWENTY SIX YEARS.”
So I want to fix it, render it a more sound structure, and draw it BACK from the nearest property line.
Zoning board Chief Stephen D. Anderson’s response: SORRY! That’s not how we do things around here. You need to provide a certified plot plan and specific measurements — evidently because though I am IMPROVING the setback situation, and MAINTAINING the existing structure, I need to establish that my project is merely a REPAIR. Building department honcho Kaija Gilmore then piped in that it was more than a repair, because of my desire to replace rotten footings with concrete tubes. The fact that the building code to which she was referring was enacted LONG SINCE the structure was erected and LONG AFTER any statute of limitation on a violation has ELAPSED evidently escaped notice by the august board.
So after hours invested and hundreds of dollars, I must further: Produce a certified plot plan (despite the fact that this dwelling has changed hands and been plotted and titled and filed with registries at least four times); consult with the building code authoritarians with that in hand about testing the improvement against the standard for “repair,” versus “addition,” and revisit the zoning board — only to WITHDRAW the original proposal, put together by a mere citizen trying to do the right thing.
On the positive side, there were one or two members of the board who seemed to be trying to do the right thing. Thank you, David W. Brown, for your common sense remarks. Unfortunately your words were offset by the imperious and disrespectful attitude demonstrated by Stephen D. Anderson, the zoning board chair and a local attorney who clearly enjoys his zoning board job way too much.
I am but a simple citizen trying to navigate the Byzantine pathways of the Andover building and zoning codes…and for my good faith effort I had the pleasure of paying a bunch of money, being insulted in front of a room full of people, and then told to come back for more of same in three weeks time. I can hardly wait.
Here are the other members of the Andover Twilight Zoning Board who heroically strive to prevent the repair of a rotten screen porches in our fair city. Join me in saluting these hard working bureaucrats who sacrifice their own time so that others may be prevented from repairing their homes:
Stephen D. Anderson, Chair
Paul Bevacqua
Carol C. McDonough
Peter F. Reilly
Nancy K. Jeton
David W. Brown, Associate
Lynne S. Batchelder, Associate
Shelley Ranalli, Associate
Rachel Baime, Associate
A dear friend put me on to an article today about the impact of blogging and new ways to engage with customers. Here’s an excerpt from “Chief Blogging Officer Title Catching On With Corporations” from “Workforce Management.”
“For better or for worse, it seems corporate blogging—and the title of chief blogger—is beginning to hit its stride. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Marriott and Kodak have recently recruited chief bloggers… to tell their stories and engage consumers.”
Chief Blogging Officer. Pretty soon there will have to be Chief Twitter Officer — but perhaps they’ll just be known as Chief Twit. Did we need a Chief Western Union Officer when the telegraph was introduced? I am working with Ginny Redgate from The Redgate Group to assemble an offering that can help companies find a path through the madness. How should your company engage in “the communities at large” with what technologies and what resources? It is our belief that this can be a managed and manageable process with clear links to business strategy, not the acts of Chief Twits flailing about trying to make sense in a marketing world with a rate of change that has them on the ropes. Contact us to find out more.
The view from my hotel in Geneva, as I began work on a project for RSD, a 35-year old report and document management company.
RSD is truly an exceptional company: success in the mainframe market for three decades, great new capabilities on open systems platforms, and an exciting set of possibilities as the company integrates new leadership (Pierre Van Beneden took over as CEO about a month and a half ago).
I’ll be sure to report on the experience as we go.
