I was asked recently, “what is the difference between change and improvement?” This is an intriguing question, because at first, it seems like improvement should be a subset of change. But is it? Change and improvement are two different things. Change is doing something different. Improvement is is getting better at doing the same thing.…
What’s the value of best practices? Some people live and breathe them; other people roundly criticize them. What’s the story? Best practices are competence in a box. They help us to quickly get up to speed on documented, reviewed, and approved ways of doing things. When you’re first starting out in anything, this is a…
According to this report by the Washington Post, Facebook scores users on false reporting of fake news on a scale of 0 to 1. First clues: 0 to 1 is a major hint that this is simple probability calculations Based principally on how often you report something as fake when it’s true For those who…
A special, purely-fun episode of #FridayFeeling in which we consider both the Jedi and Sith Codes, why both are wrong, and how it applies to modern-day life. May the Force be with you always, friends. Disclaimer/Disclosure: All things Star Wars™ are the copyright of Lucasfilm and Disney. Can’t see anything? Watch it on YouTube…
Pradeep asks, “Many people argue that a basic Marketing ethic that most of the Marketers have overlooked in the recent years is Humanity. How would invoking Humanization help to appeal more to the audiences?” In many ways, this is the wrong question to ask. Humanity – human nature – is at the root of marketing’s…
When we discuss marketing strategy, one frequent question is whether to mitigate our weaknesses or play to our strengths. How do we know which is a better strategy for our business? If we choose poorly, we waste an enormous amount of time and resources. Playing to our strengths when our weaknesses are overwhelming means negative…
There’s no rational choice between humans and machines. Given the same skill set, a rational business owner must choose the machine every time. Machines Cost Less Over Time Generally speaking, machines improve their speed over time, especially when the hardware is outsourced. Two years ago, a single vCPU server with 30 GB of disk space…
Are you prepared for the next evolution of analytics? If not, now’s the time to prepare for what’s next and seize competitive advantage by being early in what’s next. Let’s look at where analytics has been: Descriptive Analytics In the beginning, having any kind of data at all was an accomplishment. Veteran marketers remember the…
Which is more important, strategy or execution? This is a question recently tackled by McKinsey, among many other consulting firms, and their conclusion is that disruptive strategy is more important than execution. Contrast that with the advice given by folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, who is 100% all-in on high-speed, flawless execution; truisms like “best is…
Buying a martial arts black belt from Amazon does not bestow the skills of a martial artist on the buyer. Hiring someone unqualified and giving them the title of CMO does not confer any skills the candidate didn’t already have. Misnaming something to defy reality or take shortcuts never creates the results we want. Take the…
