Updates will follow as events unfold, because if you think this is over then you’re wrong.

The great lesson in microeconomics is to discriminate between when technology is going to help you and when it’s going to kill you. And most people do not get this straight in their heads. But a fellow like Buffett does.

And it isn’t that the machines weren’t better. It’s just that the savings didn’t go to you. The cost reductions came through all right. But the benefit of the cost reductions didn’t go to the guy who bought the equipment. It’s such a simple idea. It’s so basic. And yet it’s so often forgotten.

A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom As It Relates To Investment Management & Business, Charles Munger, USC Business School, 1994

” William Lawrence of ABC, another former Times man, asked the first question on December 16: As you look back upon your first two years in office, sir, has your experience in office matched your expectations?

It is much easier to make the speeches than it is to finally make the judgements, because unfortunately your advisors are frequently divided. If you take the wrong course, and on occasion I have, the President bears the burden of responsibility quite rightly. The advisors may move on to new advice”

President Kennedy – Profile of Power; Richard Reeves

Here is a thought starter: If you still rely on * (as this mobile provider does) in your thinking or in the advertising of your solutions, your solution is to complicated.

Now obviously that is not always the case, but it does serve as a way to look at what you are offering. And how you are communicating your offer.

Static/passive media like print and tv used to allow advertisers some lag time between what your offer (in terms of what you offered and how you communicated it) and when the offer was acted upon.

The ever closing gap between input and outcome asks for ever greater streamlining of the purchase process and a greater level of trust between buyer and seller.

But the good side is that every * offers a chance to create something of meaning, something that meets a need in a delightful way (that does not mean you need to add technology to the mix, just start with some observation and buyer point of view empathy and take it from there).

As seen at Frankfurt Airport. Books that help you learn a foreign language by turning the learning into a “Who-done-it” novel. Best bit of gamification I’ve come across in a long time.

Yes new tools (slowly) change cultural practices of people. Yes we should be aware of the new. No, we should not jump on all bandwagons that come along.

In times of increasing technological development, decreasing time to explore its uses and potential, and evergrowing fear by people (both in business and just as citizens) of missing out on the latest trend, we should not forget that looking at what is already in use with a fresh pair of eyes can be just as effective (even more so if all the others are not doing anything with it)…

Paul Watzlawick..

“Good heavens!” I cried. “Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?” “They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”

But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.”

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) Sherlock Holmes in “The Copper Beeches”

Rob has been writing some clear and precise posts about adlands problems..

Yet the core problem and possible solution seem simple, almost trivial (so most likely wrong). The industry has become one focused on Ideas of Succession, instead of Ideas of Progress.

The former is ” the act or process of following in order or sequence”, while the latter is focused on “A moving or going forward; a proceeding onward; an advance”.

Both have valid reasons for being, commercial value and require creativity/teamwork and effort. Yet one of them has time working against it, but until that time has run out it provides stable revenue and efficiency of scale and stability.

The other buys you more time, by letting past structures behind and looking for the next thing to become an idea of succession. More risk, less pay-off, but a chance for a seat at the table, because you are building the table.

Trick is indentifying what kind of work you are doing, so you can start planning for the inevitable change needed for things to remain sort of the same.