The world's first department store, Bon Marche established in Paris in 1838 predates the giant American Macys, Wanamakers department store which started operation in the 1860s and both predate the first self serve grocery super market, Piggly Wiggly which opened in Memphis in 1916. I give you these interesting facts as the world of shopping takes another step into the future. We have all become accustomed to online shopping for our favourite products and nothing seems out of reach to consumers with access to the net. The department stores have certainly felt the effect of online consumerism but the grocery super markets have had only a slight online dent in the weekly shopping cycle. Seems we still like to squeeze the rock melons and wait in endless lines with our trolleys laden.
Two years ago, UK chain Tesco was trying to penetrate the Korean grocery market where the general population spent a lot of time at work and commuting and as such shopped locally. Their decision, to try and keep up with the local grocery brand on every corner by building hundreds of stores or come up with an alternative. Tesco came up with the virtual super market by buying all the subway wall space they could lay their hands on, covering those walls with pictures of grocery filled shelves that commuters could shop from via their smart phones. By simply taking a picture of the QR code attached to the item you want to buy and adding it to your virtual cart, paying with your virtual wallet, you will have those items home delivered before you get off the train. The logistics of building warehouses and the distribution system was much cheaper than constructing a grocery store on every corner and sees Tesco as the leading super market in Korea with an increase in profits of 130%.
Mobile analysts indicate 90% of all phones in the developed world will be smart phones by 2016, leading Tesco to surmise their Korean experiment has legs, which segues to the opening of the same virtual style grocery store at Gatwick Airport. No longer will you have to be concerned if there is fresh milk for a cuppa when you get home from a trip, just take a picture and it will be waiting for you when you get home on the date you select.
While we have gotten used to eBay, Amazon and all manner of online department stores, the green grocer, the butcher, the baker who long ago were rolled into the super markets still seemed ubiquitous to our cycle of life around touching, smelling and tasting the wares as the squeaky wheeled trolleys were pushed around the aisles. Will this next online avenue of convenience see Woolies walls on the unadorned tunnels of Central station, will we see Coles plastering pictures of grocery specials on the sides of buildings and will the next generations care? After all the one thing we are all aiming for with the new modes of convenience shopping, is gaining more time in our lives to do the important things, like shopping!
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Watch the Birdie.
It's all our fault, the sun shone for two weeks, the public transport system didn't break down, no one got eaten by a shark and we put on the perfect Olympics. The best for decades, after the Munich kidnappings, the Moscow boycott and the Atlanta bombings, gave us pause for thinking the spirit of the games was but a hazy memory. No matter where athletes finished in Sydney, they smiled, they hugged, they competed the right way and all seemed right with the world for two weeks. The ambiance captured in Sydney was replicated over the next couple of Olympics and they became shining examples of doing the right thing, the distillation of the Olympic objectives. Even the most obscure sports were given the spot light for just a second and enjoyed their moment in the sun, no matter who was casting doubt on the sporting prowess of the competitors.
London looked like it would follow our lead but for all that London had to offer and had accomplished, it will always be remembered for the one tarnish, from here on in to be known as "Birdgate". The entire world of Badminton was turned upside down by winners not wanting to win, not wanting to win within a rules system in need of an update and never once playing within the spirit of the games and doing the right thing. Not since the Christmas BBQ incident, known as Uncle Harry's fall from grace, where he lightly tapped his partner, cousin Jean, on the bum with his racket after her astonishing return of aunt May's underhand service, has the badminton world seen such controversy. Like the badminton disciplinary committee's quick action against the offending teams, uncle Harry was banished to the BBQ pit, to preserve the integrity and credibility of the sport and to give aunt May recourse for a good talking to later on. Uncle Harry was able to redeem himself later on the day with a winning run at Monopoly and has the opportunity for more gold moments at the next family gathering, something the Chinese and Koreans will miss out on.
Comedic analogies aside, the defining moment was all about not doing the right thing and trying to gain advantage bypassing the paradigm of what the Olympics stand for. Having played sports my whole life I often try and bring the same motivation and correlations aligned to winning within a team environment to business and examples like "Birdgate" certainly become good bench marks for how not do business, even if you can avail yourself of a murky situation to gain advantage. Like sports, business runs best when a sense of the right way to do things is espoused by top management, not inherently different to the Olympic oath, where the athletes declare to compete "in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams" Learning how to gain magnanimity after not achieving the result you promised yourself and others, learning other competitors aren't the enemy but someone to bring out the best in you
There are always business lessons to be learnt from sports on a big stage and maybe London delivered more than we expected after all.
London looked like it would follow our lead but for all that London had to offer and had accomplished, it will always be remembered for the one tarnish, from here on in to be known as "Birdgate". The entire world of Badminton was turned upside down by winners not wanting to win, not wanting to win within a rules system in need of an update and never once playing within the spirit of the games and doing the right thing. Not since the Christmas BBQ incident, known as Uncle Harry's fall from grace, where he lightly tapped his partner, cousin Jean, on the bum with his racket after her astonishing return of aunt May's underhand service, has the badminton world seen such controversy. Like the badminton disciplinary committee's quick action against the offending teams, uncle Harry was banished to the BBQ pit, to preserve the integrity and credibility of the sport and to give aunt May recourse for a good talking to later on. Uncle Harry was able to redeem himself later on the day with a winning run at Monopoly and has the opportunity for more gold moments at the next family gathering, something the Chinese and Koreans will miss out on.
Comedic analogies aside, the defining moment was all about not doing the right thing and trying to gain advantage bypassing the paradigm of what the Olympics stand for. Having played sports my whole life I often try and bring the same motivation and correlations aligned to winning within a team environment to business and examples like "Birdgate" certainly become good bench marks for how not do business, even if you can avail yourself of a murky situation to gain advantage. Like sports, business runs best when a sense of the right way to do things is espoused by top management, not inherently different to the Olympic oath, where the athletes declare to compete "in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams" Learning how to gain magnanimity after not achieving the result you promised yourself and others, learning other competitors aren't the enemy but someone to bring out the best in you
There are always business lessons to be learnt from sports on a big stage and maybe London delivered more than we expected after all.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Insouciance.
You know the scene, laying by the pool, sand between your toes, being fanned by a super model, drinking an ice cold beer watching your team on the big screen, all the while contemplating the night's festivities to come. Then someone in the 10 o'clock meeting asks you a question and you are right back where you started, bored at work. You try as hard as you can but nothing sways you from turning off and sitting zombie like in your cubicle, your office or the lunch room. Depending on which report you read, 25% to 80% of people are bored at work too much of the time, bored with their job and bored bored bored. Even at the low end of those statistics, a lot of people are being paid for just showing up and no one, least of all the bordee, the apathetic, benumbed, detached, moribund, jaded, stultified, torpid and hebetudinous( who knew, so many words for
bored )is making any effort to change the situation. Who's responsible, who's accountable, who's answerable, who cares?
The many reasons for being bored at work, including environment and work practice not being challenging enough, you are a pirate born two hundred years too late, through to repetition of tasks that numb the brain all have antidotes, maybe not the pirate. No one disagrees that patches of boredom creep into every job, even rock stars get bored of the money and girls being thrown at them? Okay, certainly the finance departments get bored with the same old receipts and reconciliations.
Taking a lead from the experts, clearing that lingering inbox, decluttering your desk and work area, straightening your tie and then getting on with the job at hand, after all it's a job not a hobby, gives rise to push back from people wanting more in their work day. The problem today being the majority of people work in office confines in artificial environments without a lot of stimuli to keep them active, motivated and challenged beyond their job description. That is of course, unless you work for the Google like companies looking to continually stimulate and galvanise their staff for greater success.
So step outside of those confines when that Tse Tse fly of boredom comes buzzing around and create your own Google complex with new endeavours to keep you energised, like meditation, drama lessons over the phone to give you that radio announcer voice you've always wanted, sit ups to start your new fitness regime, use the powers of restorative healing and take a nap, play Sudoku, read a blog (hint), write the great Australian novel or just gravitate to things you do well and do them even better. If all of that fails why not look for a new job, it certainly couldn't hurt.
Everyone has a choice not to be bored to death at work and as Norman Mailer pointed out,
"The war between being and nothingness is the underlying illness of the twentieth century. Boredom slays more of existence than war", it can be sole destroying, so don't battle it out in the trenches, get creative, go crazy, stay alive, not bored to death.
bored )is making any effort to change the situation. Who's responsible, who's accountable, who's answerable, who cares?
The many reasons for being bored at work, including environment and work practice not being challenging enough, you are a pirate born two hundred years too late, through to repetition of tasks that numb the brain all have antidotes, maybe not the pirate. No one disagrees that patches of boredom creep into every job, even rock stars get bored of the money and girls being thrown at them? Okay, certainly the finance departments get bored with the same old receipts and reconciliations.
Taking a lead from the experts, clearing that lingering inbox, decluttering your desk and work area, straightening your tie and then getting on with the job at hand, after all it's a job not a hobby, gives rise to push back from people wanting more in their work day. The problem today being the majority of people work in office confines in artificial environments without a lot of stimuli to keep them active, motivated and challenged beyond their job description. That is of course, unless you work for the Google like companies looking to continually stimulate and galvanise their staff for greater success.
So step outside of those confines when that Tse Tse fly of boredom comes buzzing around and create your own Google complex with new endeavours to keep you energised, like meditation, drama lessons over the phone to give you that radio announcer voice you've always wanted, sit ups to start your new fitness regime, use the powers of restorative healing and take a nap, play Sudoku, read a blog (hint), write the great Australian novel or just gravitate to things you do well and do them even better. If all of that fails why not look for a new job, it certainly couldn't hurt.
Everyone has a choice not to be bored to death at work and as Norman Mailer pointed out,
"The war between being and nothingness is the underlying illness of the twentieth century. Boredom slays more of existence than war", it can be sole destroying, so don't battle it out in the trenches, get creative, go crazy, stay alive, not bored to death.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Where exactly?
I thought I'd do a little Olympic flavour this week and my inspiration comes from our friends at NBC studio who have hundreds of people in London assigned for their extensive TV coverage. Hundreds of people looking after the smallest of details, handling incredibly complex technology for satellite transmission, making sure their viewers are given only the best when it comes to sports entertainment and having at their disposal only the best in their field. Add on hundreds more back in the US doing research and you have a large company doing what it has been doing for over 60 years.
So why wouldn't I get a laugh, when looking for Australia on their web site over the weekend, I find we have magically been transported back to Europe. Seems no one had bothered to check the old chestnut mixup with Austria as I found Australia, "Located in central Europe, bordered to the north by Germany and the Czech Republic, to the west by Switzerland and Liechtenstein, to the south by Italy and Slovenia, and to the east by Hungary and Slovakia. Is primarily mountainous with the Alps and foothills covering the western and southern provinces."
Makes the last tourism campaign of "where the bloody hell are you" seem quite apt and if it was true would make my flights to Germany about 22 hours shorter. I bring all of this back to accurate information being freely available to everyone with any kind of access to technology today. I'm guessing with all that satellite technology at NBC's disposal, no one bothered to check and someone who hasn't left the confines of greater north America and didn't pass high school geography was given the job of loading the relevant or in this case contrary information onto the web site.
It's always the small things that catch companies out and make others remember the errancy of their story. Comedians ( on other channels of course ) will have their way with NBC and no doubt the social media platform will be alive with heckles at the expense of the broadcasting company. The broadcast will be flawless, the commentators will be erudite and pithy in their discourse on the athlete's endeavour but people will still be talking about the little mistakes that people and countries especially, take umbrage over.
I'm pleased to say after the weekend, we made it back to where we belong, an island in the middle of nowhere. It might be a long way from anywhere NBC considers important but to us it means a lot and we'll no doubt continue to take great delight at the ineptitude of a company that should know better. It's good to know that our "sister" country Austria can find humour in the situation as well, when you see the biggest selling T-shirts at Vienna airport proudly stating, "Austria - no kangaroos".
The little things always count, especially when we are the biggest little thing in the Southern Pacific.
So why wouldn't I get a laugh, when looking for Australia on their web site over the weekend, I find we have magically been transported back to Europe. Seems no one had bothered to check the old chestnut mixup with Austria as I found Australia, "Located in central Europe, bordered to the north by Germany and the Czech Republic, to the west by Switzerland and Liechtenstein, to the south by Italy and Slovenia, and to the east by Hungary and Slovakia. Is primarily mountainous with the Alps and foothills covering the western and southern provinces."
Makes the last tourism campaign of "where the bloody hell are you" seem quite apt and if it was true would make my flights to Germany about 22 hours shorter. I bring all of this back to accurate information being freely available to everyone with any kind of access to technology today. I'm guessing with all that satellite technology at NBC's disposal, no one bothered to check and someone who hasn't left the confines of greater north America and didn't pass high school geography was given the job of loading the relevant or in this case contrary information onto the web site.
It's always the small things that catch companies out and make others remember the errancy of their story. Comedians ( on other channels of course ) will have their way with NBC and no doubt the social media platform will be alive with heckles at the expense of the broadcasting company. The broadcast will be flawless, the commentators will be erudite and pithy in their discourse on the athlete's endeavour but people will still be talking about the little mistakes that people and countries especially, take umbrage over.
I'm pleased to say after the weekend, we made it back to where we belong, an island in the middle of nowhere. It might be a long way from anywhere NBC considers important but to us it means a lot and we'll no doubt continue to take great delight at the ineptitude of a company that should know better. It's good to know that our "sister" country Austria can find humour in the situation as well, when you see the biggest selling T-shirts at Vienna airport proudly stating, "Austria - no kangaroos".
The little things always count, especially when we are the biggest little thing in the Southern Pacific.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Brand you world.
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken. Oscar Wilde had it right all those years ago but there were less of us and it wasn't anywhere near as crowded as it is today. So nowadays it's all about how to stand out in the huddled masses, how to have an identity, how to have visibility, how to shine brighter than the person standing next to you and most importantly how to then sell yourself. Seems everyone is keen to be the next one, the next celebrity, the next online sensation, the next big personality, the next one to stand out more than the others, the next big brand.
The online world is littered with information, forums, literature and experts who will give your accord a successful identity, establish you as a brand and make you the second coming of your favourite impresario or entrepreneur. As much as people are striving to give themselves a makeover via a branding application, the world isn't looking for a copy of someone else, rather it is looking for more originality and innovation. Trying to be like someone you admire and hold in reverence is telling the wrong story about who you really are and most likely covering up your best attributes. Your uniqueness already has a chronicle that makes you different from everybody else and if you can articulate that story better, then you can compete and be noticed, all without the falsehood of so called brand attachments. Do you have something to sell, do you have something to offer are very product driven questions that have taken on an individual bias and have accelerated the over abundance of personal branding messages aimed at your appearance, your personality and your competencies.
You already have a personal brand and if you were to look at it from a product base, maybe it needs a polish or update to realign people's perception of you. Today everything seems to be about brands as we surround ourselves with products, services and leaders that cloud our vision and ability to tell our story and stand out in our own way. It's not about becoming someone else but being noticed and appreciated for what you bring to your relationships, your work environment and your community. It's not about packaging yourself along the lines of the latest personal marketing management techniques, it's about your reputation for doing the right things, having integrity and credibility and always keeping an eye on not turning into someone you aren't.
Branding isn't so much about the packaging, self promotion and event marketing, it's about the authenticity and personal trust you wake up with every day and it's about not wavering in the face of self help gurus looking to be the next great brand, via you. It already exists in you and all you need do, is build your story around the things you do best, no matter how trivial you may think they are, you have something different to offer, you are someone no one else can resemble and as such are one in seven billion. Congratulations you are brand you.
The online world is littered with information, forums, literature and experts who will give your accord a successful identity, establish you as a brand and make you the second coming of your favourite impresario or entrepreneur. As much as people are striving to give themselves a makeover via a branding application, the world isn't looking for a copy of someone else, rather it is looking for more originality and innovation. Trying to be like someone you admire and hold in reverence is telling the wrong story about who you really are and most likely covering up your best attributes. Your uniqueness already has a chronicle that makes you different from everybody else and if you can articulate that story better, then you can compete and be noticed, all without the falsehood of so called brand attachments. Do you have something to sell, do you have something to offer are very product driven questions that have taken on an individual bias and have accelerated the over abundance of personal branding messages aimed at your appearance, your personality and your competencies.
You already have a personal brand and if you were to look at it from a product base, maybe it needs a polish or update to realign people's perception of you. Today everything seems to be about brands as we surround ourselves with products, services and leaders that cloud our vision and ability to tell our story and stand out in our own way. It's not about becoming someone else but being noticed and appreciated for what you bring to your relationships, your work environment and your community. It's not about packaging yourself along the lines of the latest personal marketing management techniques, it's about your reputation for doing the right things, having integrity and credibility and always keeping an eye on not turning into someone you aren't.
Branding isn't so much about the packaging, self promotion and event marketing, it's about the authenticity and personal trust you wake up with every day and it's about not wavering in the face of self help gurus looking to be the next great brand, via you. It already exists in you and all you need do, is build your story around the things you do best, no matter how trivial you may think they are, you have something different to offer, you are someone no one else can resemble and as such are one in seven billion. Congratulations you are brand you.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Technology Hostages.
I want to travel back in time, carrying only my tablet and maybe a phone or MP3 player. Not hundreds of years, not even fifty years, maybe just 20 years. A hundred years ago I would have been burned at the stake as a witch, just by playing a bit of music and showing photos on the above equipment. Fifty years ago the newspapers and publishing world would have made my equipment disappear and me along with it. Two decades ago I would have been anointed a global genius as the web in its infancy looked towards a wireless future of connectivity and entertainment.
Ten years ago the iPod was considered the height of miniaturisation and technology innovation, six years ago the iPhone took further hold on our imagination and three years ago the iPad gave us a reason to stop buying paper products and enriched ours lives with just a ten inch screen. I use the Apple products as a timeline example only, as I look around my world and see a decade of shift that won't be reproduced again. Technology has come such a long way in such a short time that expectations are heightened to the extent we now expect everything to work all the time and when it doesn't, we have no benchmark for our irrational behaviour towards technology. The expectation that someone somewhere is already working on our wildest dreams can over shadow what we have today and I see it daily in the frustrations encountered in what we consider the most mundane of technology.
Where's my folder, why is it taking so long to boot up, how come my system freezes, why isn't it working like it was this morning, did you change my settings and a plethora of frustrated out bursts litter our offices, lounge rooms and cafes. We have careened into the future so fast that we forgot where we came from and how difficult it used to be just to imagine today. The greatest innovations of our time, the car, television, air travel and spandex, all took years to mature and for society to fully embrace them and in spandex' case to leave them behind. Even the Internet took a while to catch on but now it's about how quickly technology can move to keep up with its own publicity and deliver results beyond our wildest fancies.
In fact technology has replaced our future to such an extent, we no longer dream of the future, we expect it delivered to our front door. The moon used to be so far fetched that nothing we thought of technologically was ridiculous, yet today we live and breathe the ridiculous every day. We are so entrenched in a technology future that the obstacles we encountered twenty years, ten years or even two years ago seem trivial, so trivial as to make us hostages to expectations that technology has the ability to fulfil our wildest dreams. Beam me up Scotty.
Ten years ago the iPod was considered the height of miniaturisation and technology innovation, six years ago the iPhone took further hold on our imagination and three years ago the iPad gave us a reason to stop buying paper products and enriched ours lives with just a ten inch screen. I use the Apple products as a timeline example only, as I look around my world and see a decade of shift that won't be reproduced again. Technology has come such a long way in such a short time that expectations are heightened to the extent we now expect everything to work all the time and when it doesn't, we have no benchmark for our irrational behaviour towards technology. The expectation that someone somewhere is already working on our wildest dreams can over shadow what we have today and I see it daily in the frustrations encountered in what we consider the most mundane of technology.
Where's my folder, why is it taking so long to boot up, how come my system freezes, why isn't it working like it was this morning, did you change my settings and a plethora of frustrated out bursts litter our offices, lounge rooms and cafes. We have careened into the future so fast that we forgot where we came from and how difficult it used to be just to imagine today. The greatest innovations of our time, the car, television, air travel and spandex, all took years to mature and for society to fully embrace them and in spandex' case to leave them behind. Even the Internet took a while to catch on but now it's about how quickly technology can move to keep up with its own publicity and deliver results beyond our wildest fancies.
In fact technology has replaced our future to such an extent, we no longer dream of the future, we expect it delivered to our front door. The moon used to be so far fetched that nothing we thought of technologically was ridiculous, yet today we live and breathe the ridiculous every day. We are so entrenched in a technology future that the obstacles we encountered twenty years, ten years or even two years ago seem trivial, so trivial as to make us hostages to expectations that technology has the ability to fulfil our wildest dreams. Beam me up Scotty.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Appreciation Society.
I like what you do, you like what I do, makes for a good start to a lasting relationship, working or otherwise. The problem with this, we often don't know what people are capable of doing and we don't go out of our way to find out. From that, the follow on is lack of appreciation and recognition. The last job you accepted, was likely based on your qualifications and you no doubt continue in the job using the skill set noted in your resume. Your colleagues and even the boss, continue relating to you through those skills but if they only knew more about you, you could be so much more, valuable and appreciated by the company.
For many people the thank you's become infrequent as time worked, reverts to normal expectations of a job well done. It's hard to notice something that isn't there and doing a good job becomes business as usual and anticipation of acknowledgement fade as you continue to perform as expected. If only they knew you were a passionate musician, skilled in the art of negotiation, a fine writer or even a speaker of note, management might consider using those skills in a way to benefit the staff and the company. If only you could point out your merits without bragging, without coming off as obnoxious and without being seen as self centred. Appreciation of those "other" skills would go a long way to remunerating the bank of thank you's, that is running low due to lack of acknowledgement.
Recent work on social networking tools designed for companies wanting to find out more about their employees has shown a marked improvement in culture, retention and profits as management find more reasons to appreciate their staff. An example is the Skillcloud platform that allows employees to circulate their extraneous abilities, hobbies, sports, interests and accomplishments, within a social context that people have become used to using. This gives companies the ability to source people skills, often not mentioned in resumes and interviews, while finding more ways to engage with their staff.
No one dies from lack of appreciation but it makes enough of a difference that people find more reasons to come to work and bring that little bit extra of themselves. It makes people feel more authentic and whole, elevates levels of engagement and motivation, while giving the company more reasons to show appreciation. So without having to swagger through the day pointing out your achievements, social platforms bring another approach for companies to work closer with their employees.
People leave their jobs for many reasons and appreciation and recognition are high on the list cited by employees waving goodbye to companies that didn't take the time to find out more about them. This openness needs to be part of a company culture and as such has to come from the top. So if you know nothing about your boss or upper management, they don't know anything about you other than what they see everyday, and appreciation is lacking because of that, maybe it's time to go social platform and open up the thank you bank again.
For many people the thank you's become infrequent as time worked, reverts to normal expectations of a job well done. It's hard to notice something that isn't there and doing a good job becomes business as usual and anticipation of acknowledgement fade as you continue to perform as expected. If only they knew you were a passionate musician, skilled in the art of negotiation, a fine writer or even a speaker of note, management might consider using those skills in a way to benefit the staff and the company. If only you could point out your merits without bragging, without coming off as obnoxious and without being seen as self centred. Appreciation of those "other" skills would go a long way to remunerating the bank of thank you's, that is running low due to lack of acknowledgement.
Recent work on social networking tools designed for companies wanting to find out more about their employees has shown a marked improvement in culture, retention and profits as management find more reasons to appreciate their staff. An example is the Skillcloud platform that allows employees to circulate their extraneous abilities, hobbies, sports, interests and accomplishments, within a social context that people have become used to using. This gives companies the ability to source people skills, often not mentioned in resumes and interviews, while finding more ways to engage with their staff.
No one dies from lack of appreciation but it makes enough of a difference that people find more reasons to come to work and bring that little bit extra of themselves. It makes people feel more authentic and whole, elevates levels of engagement and motivation, while giving the company more reasons to show appreciation. So without having to swagger through the day pointing out your achievements, social platforms bring another approach for companies to work closer with their employees.
People leave their jobs for many reasons and appreciation and recognition are high on the list cited by employees waving goodbye to companies that didn't take the time to find out more about them. This openness needs to be part of a company culture and as such has to come from the top. So if you know nothing about your boss or upper management, they don't know anything about you other than what they see everyday, and appreciation is lacking because of that, maybe it's time to go social platform and open up the thank you bank again.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Renting not shopping.
It was hard for my parents to understand the concept of renting when they first arrived in Australia after owning their house, but they had to accept it as a consequence of the big migration to the "sunburnt country". Renting has long moved on from the family abode, the crash pad, the one bedder or the single room in a house of six. In fact renting has long since moved from real estate into the mainstream as Millennials (we are going to run out of letters eventually, so why not give them a proper name?) look to rent everything from the classic TV, through to technology, cars, husbands and wives, dogs, toys, celebrities and all of the other things in life that make you happy.
The concept of shopping to own, is transforming to a concept of renting, products, places, ideas, people and clouds. For many the last example is seen as the major shift where technology becomes the enabler for you to store information, ideas and products in the cloud and not have them hanging around your lounge room. Seems a lot of the owning angst is about mobility and having the ability to remain unencumbered by the weight of acquisitions. Why carry around stuff when you can rent and store it somewhere else, think goget cars, information that used to belong in books and music that was only available on vinyl.
Acquiring things was always about showing off, to someone who cared, (did they really), and it said a lot about the buyer. We all have varying perceptions of people who purchase luxury goods as status, expensive car drivers and that bloke who was always spruiking about his latest HiFi acquisition. The flea market that is the web, where you can buy anything, anytime, has become overwhelming and for many it's just easier to rent and not make life long decisions about acquisitions that eventually end up on eBay. Millennials have become known as the delaying generation, including growing up, moving out and purchasing assets, giving rise to a new rental mentality or even scarier, I want it free mentality.
Millennials want to connect and renting gives them more opportunity to do that rather than remain isolated within their singular purchases. Rentals are continuous connections and expose them to more than the one off shopping transaction. The purchasing of a car being replaced by the quick hour rentals is a major concern for manufacturers trying to influence the next generation as pointed out by US Toyota president Jim Lentz at a recent conference. He said “We have to face the growing reality that today young people don’t seem to be as interested in cars as previous generations. Many young people care more about buying the latest smart phone or gaming console than getting their driver’s license.” With half of potential drivers under 19 and less of the 20 to 24 year old holding a licence, as reported by The Times, it seems Mr Lentz has something to worry about.
Is this the extinction of ownership? With more Millennials staying at home, living in density in the city, who will buy the houses that Boomers will want to sell in the next decades? Who will buy the cars that Boomers so needed in the burbs? For Millennials a car just means parking challenges, for Millennials collecting means less mobility, for Millennials renting means freedom.
The concept of shopping to own, is transforming to a concept of renting, products, places, ideas, people and clouds. For many the last example is seen as the major shift where technology becomes the enabler for you to store information, ideas and products in the cloud and not have them hanging around your lounge room. Seems a lot of the owning angst is about mobility and having the ability to remain unencumbered by the weight of acquisitions. Why carry around stuff when you can rent and store it somewhere else, think goget cars, information that used to belong in books and music that was only available on vinyl.
Acquiring things was always about showing off, to someone who cared, (did they really), and it said a lot about the buyer. We all have varying perceptions of people who purchase luxury goods as status, expensive car drivers and that bloke who was always spruiking about his latest HiFi acquisition. The flea market that is the web, where you can buy anything, anytime, has become overwhelming and for many it's just easier to rent and not make life long decisions about acquisitions that eventually end up on eBay. Millennials have become known as the delaying generation, including growing up, moving out and purchasing assets, giving rise to a new rental mentality or even scarier, I want it free mentality.
Millennials want to connect and renting gives them more opportunity to do that rather than remain isolated within their singular purchases. Rentals are continuous connections and expose them to more than the one off shopping transaction. The purchasing of a car being replaced by the quick hour rentals is a major concern for manufacturers trying to influence the next generation as pointed out by US Toyota president Jim Lentz at a recent conference. He said “We have to face the growing reality that today young people don’t seem to be as interested in cars as previous generations. Many young people care more about buying the latest smart phone or gaming console than getting their driver’s license.” With half of potential drivers under 19 and less of the 20 to 24 year old holding a licence, as reported by The Times, it seems Mr Lentz has something to worry about.
Is this the extinction of ownership? With more Millennials staying at home, living in density in the city, who will buy the houses that Boomers will want to sell in the next decades? Who will buy the cars that Boomers so needed in the burbs? For Millennials a car just means parking challenges, for Millennials collecting means less mobility, for Millennials renting means freedom.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Cool is?
Used to be Steve McQueen was cool, a martini shaken not stirred was cool, Air Jordan sneakers were cool and so was being the first kid on the block with the latest gadget or piece of technology. Attitudes and mores of society change yet the concept of cool continues to fascinate us, even if we can never attain those lofty heights. Even with constant change the attributes of exclusivity, innovation, behaviour and influence remain pillars of cool. To be in the Zeitgeist, the minute, the moment as the leader, the innovator or just the epitome of social awareness grants you the right to be cool, however fleeting that moment may be. From the jazz cellars of the 40's where cool is thought to have originated to Marshall MacLuhan describing television as a cool medium, unlike the hot media of radio and print, because of its complex sensory involvement of sound and pictures, cool has looked to arbiters of taste to define it for the general masses.
So I chuckled when a UK judge decided that the Samsung tablet was not as cool as the iPad, in a copyright verdict handed down this week. Cool was never a definition handed down by authority, in fact it was usually the opposite as the elusive essence of cool was the domain of a few in tune individuals willing to pass it on or point it out. It is the ultimate social label everyone craves but if something cool suddenly becomes mainstream acceptable, it all too quickly fades back into the suburban. The very nature of cool is only 5 minutes away from being ordinary if mass acceptance brings with it imitations and copies. Sunglasses at night was the height of cool for jazz musicians but has become mundane as we watch C grade celebrities aspire but fail the test of chill.
There is cache attached to cool that today can be turned into money. Apple didn't turn into the world's most valuable company by just building computers, Mr and Mrs Smith aren't just hotels and Johnny Depp isn't just Jack Sparrow. So the search for the next cool thing continues as boundaries are pushed, creativity springs forth and televisions get paper thin. From music, through celebrities, fashion, cars and attitudes, cool dances in our heads and becomes an aspirational aim for many but only a few get to decide what's in and what's out.
The critically self aware, the intrinsically cognisant and the perpetually observant among us, are the arbiters, bringing forth ideas, products, behaviour and style that becomes a substance, a state of cool obvious once we encounter it but invisible if you are not tuned in. Personality wise, you either are or aren't cool, depending on your style, your bearing, your sentience and it is a difficult comportment to fake. You certainly cannot call yourself cool because that would be the most uncoolest. Yet today you can be cool, just by the accoutrements you carry, especially if it happens to be the latest piece of technology.
So is there really a short cut to becoming cool, staying cool and being cool? Technology says yes if you are an early adopter of the right innovation but that will only get you so far, because eventually you'll have to talk, relate and communicate, signalling you either have it, or not. For some, cool is a perpetual state of being, which brings us back to Steve McQueen, still cool.
So I chuckled when a UK judge decided that the Samsung tablet was not as cool as the iPad, in a copyright verdict handed down this week. Cool was never a definition handed down by authority, in fact it was usually the opposite as the elusive essence of cool was the domain of a few in tune individuals willing to pass it on or point it out. It is the ultimate social label everyone craves but if something cool suddenly becomes mainstream acceptable, it all too quickly fades back into the suburban. The very nature of cool is only 5 minutes away from being ordinary if mass acceptance brings with it imitations and copies. Sunglasses at night was the height of cool for jazz musicians but has become mundane as we watch C grade celebrities aspire but fail the test of chill.
There is cache attached to cool that today can be turned into money. Apple didn't turn into the world's most valuable company by just building computers, Mr and Mrs Smith aren't just hotels and Johnny Depp isn't just Jack Sparrow. So the search for the next cool thing continues as boundaries are pushed, creativity springs forth and televisions get paper thin. From music, through celebrities, fashion, cars and attitudes, cool dances in our heads and becomes an aspirational aim for many but only a few get to decide what's in and what's out.
The critically self aware, the intrinsically cognisant and the perpetually observant among us, are the arbiters, bringing forth ideas, products, behaviour and style that becomes a substance, a state of cool obvious once we encounter it but invisible if you are not tuned in. Personality wise, you either are or aren't cool, depending on your style, your bearing, your sentience and it is a difficult comportment to fake. You certainly cannot call yourself cool because that would be the most uncoolest. Yet today you can be cool, just by the accoutrements you carry, especially if it happens to be the latest piece of technology.
So is there really a short cut to becoming cool, staying cool and being cool? Technology says yes if you are an early adopter of the right innovation but that will only get you so far, because eventually you'll have to talk, relate and communicate, signalling you either have it, or not. For some, cool is a perpetual state of being, which brings us back to Steve McQueen, still cool.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Should I go or should I stay?
The Clash may have been talking about girl trouble but they could just as easily have been talking about how long you should stay in a job nowadays. Over the past several months, friends and colleagues have been asking themselves the above question, with many taking the opportunity for change and others continuing to struggle with the question. HR and recruitment companies indicate that over 30% of employees will leave their employer this year, with another 50% seriously thinking about it. This morning I heard that 50% of all nurses will leave their profession within the next decade, showing that even the most dedicated of professions are asking themselves the question. Many leave for cultural, monetary, promotional, recognition and management reasons and most saw the signs early, helping to validate their reasons for departing. As Joe Strummer so eloquently puts it, there could be trouble if you stay, there could be trouble if you go, so look for signs you've been working too many hours, working with the wrong people, working for the wrong company.
The gold watch for lengthy stays has long disappeared and the reality today, is even a few years, can be a long time in one place, with technology prolonging your days. A two year job stint, can look and feel like a four year stint if you add up all the hours you work. Surveys indicate that emails start getting checked at 7.30am and don't generally finish before 9.30pm, giving you a solid 14 hour day. Even if you don't recognise it, that's close to 50% more work time than most people get paid for and no matter how convenient it may feel, with technology as the enabler, it is time away from the important things in life. Sometimes the signs are obvious, as in hours to satisfaction ratio but often people "just do" their job and never notice how the little things creep up and accumulate. Is the extra time spent at work, worth it? Is the extra time spent at work, making a difference to your work? How long do you keep this up?
So how long to stay, when to start looking and when to leave are tough questions and difficult answers to find if you are not aware of your circumstances and the landscape around you. A recent trip with a client walking through an airport where he knew everyone from the sandwich lady to the check in attendant gave rise to a few laughs but the serious side of so much time away from his family, didn't go unnoticed by either of us. The throw away line of not knowing his neighbour as well as the people at the airport should be a litmus test, a bench mark, for realigning work hours, for a change at work or perhaps to leave for greener pastures. If you don't recognise some of the more serious signs, you could end up under the greener pastures.
It sounds serious but in today's climate of low unemployment the indications to change shouldn't be mounting up until you can no longer suffer the weight of expectations, hours required to do a job or the concern of changing jobs more frequently. If you know the flight attendant, the cleaning lady or even the boss better than you now your family and friends, you should be asking yourself the question.
The gold watch for lengthy stays has long disappeared and the reality today, is even a few years, can be a long time in one place, with technology prolonging your days. A two year job stint, can look and feel like a four year stint if you add up all the hours you work. Surveys indicate that emails start getting checked at 7.30am and don't generally finish before 9.30pm, giving you a solid 14 hour day. Even if you don't recognise it, that's close to 50% more work time than most people get paid for and no matter how convenient it may feel, with technology as the enabler, it is time away from the important things in life. Sometimes the signs are obvious, as in hours to satisfaction ratio but often people "just do" their job and never notice how the little things creep up and accumulate. Is the extra time spent at work, worth it? Is the extra time spent at work, making a difference to your work? How long do you keep this up?
So how long to stay, when to start looking and when to leave are tough questions and difficult answers to find if you are not aware of your circumstances and the landscape around you. A recent trip with a client walking through an airport where he knew everyone from the sandwich lady to the check in attendant gave rise to a few laughs but the serious side of so much time away from his family, didn't go unnoticed by either of us. The throw away line of not knowing his neighbour as well as the people at the airport should be a litmus test, a bench mark, for realigning work hours, for a change at work or perhaps to leave for greener pastures. If you don't recognise some of the more serious signs, you could end up under the greener pastures.
It sounds serious but in today's climate of low unemployment the indications to change shouldn't be mounting up until you can no longer suffer the weight of expectations, hours required to do a job or the concern of changing jobs more frequently. If you know the flight attendant, the cleaning lady or even the boss better than you now your family and friends, you should be asking yourself the question.
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