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How seemingly senseless acts make life worth living
The value of rituals in life… and in commerce. Carrie walked into her mother’s home to find her sitting on the floor, surrounded by relatives and friends. She was wailing after having just buried her son. Nobody seemed to be able to offer any consolation—in fact, any attempt had her cry harder. “Why don’t you…
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Love: the Most Fundamental Market Principle
How duty, learning, and friendship contributed to the foundation of trust. You’ll forgive the Franciscan for owning only one tunic. Clothing was a sign of wealth in Italy’s flourishing economy of the 13th Century. Even expensive vellum manuscripts were frowned upon. Books were alright, but purely as tools for learning. Though it was alright to…
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How the Employer Brand Dies in Applicants Inboxes
Applicant experience is buyer experience in recruitment. Buyers are people who come to you once. Based on the experience, they may decide to walk away and never come back. Or, they could come back again and become customers. In some cases, they might tell everyone they know about you. Your choice whether that's positive…
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Brands that don’t Need to Steal Energy to Survive, Thrive
I was reading an article about a study by Minneapolis agency SuperHuman about marketing and women above 40. How brands get it wrong. It was 2017, I forgot where they published about it. But I remember I seemed to agree 300 percent with the gap they observed between what women want and look for…
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What Happens to the Brand in Acquisitions?
When a brand dies, we hardly even notice anymore. And yet, a rebrand is not a superficial thing. Forget customer pledges. Unless you truly intend to keep your promises. There are consequences to the business and the community beyond what happens to followers and fans in social media. In 2015, DuPont announced their new…
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Human Progress: What ‘it’ is and Where it’s Going
Human progress is not measured by good enough, but by those who strive (with great sacrifice) for a more perfect misunderstanding. Versions of this thought have been part of my conversations with Peter Tunjic for the better part of twenty years. It goes in the same category with “those who do not learn from…
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Read Different to Think Different
Is there a good way of knowing things you can use? I've been asking myself this question more frequently as of late. On one hand, you can train yourself to ask better questions. Which is especially useful about topics that are right under everyone's nose. Take the internet, for example. We consider it infrastructure. Like…
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Human Systems Need Better Thinking
Current systems don't take into account the energy in human systems. Systems need better thinking. Twenty years ago, I coined a term to talk about the effects of this situation: “energy vampires.” Time and time again, I've observed (and proven in business) that when things go bad, it's no so much because of “bad” energy.…
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How do You Get to “Good Enough”?
It took Clare Trapasso nine months of scouring the market in three states, touring dozens of homes, losing multiple bidding wars, and rescinding another offer on a fixer-upper that would need more work than they could afford to put in, before she and her partner finally closed on a cute, renovated Cape Cod outside…
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Reinventing the Assumption on Human Motivation
We overlook how much in life is about steps. There isn't a neat division between them, either. The development of one competency, skill, or the attainment of an achievement can be concurrent. You move up a step, and then review the previous one again. Hierarchies don't reveal nuance. Needs go beyond the physical and…