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Pieta Brown and Bo Ramsey at Cafe Paradiso

Pieta Brown and Bo Ramsey played last night at Cafe Paradiso.

I'm reluctant to say much about their music, their playing, her music and lyrics, what they add to each other....words seem only to diminish the delight, the chills, the sweet moments from sharing the music of two consummate artists in themselves and then together when each only enhance the other... back and forth...playing...enjoying...surprising...

I'd seen each perform separately. Both wowed me. Sometimes two great performers...don't really work together...kinda like coffee and lemonade...I love 'em both, just not together. But these two treats are like full menu buffets for the heart and soul when they play together.

Thanks to Meret and Steve, owners of Cafe Paradiso, for bringing Pieta and Bo down here for the evening. Ms. Brown and Mr. Ramsey, please come back.

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Institute of Medicine of the National Academies Calls for Universal Health Care

Julie's Health Club, a blog at the Chicago Tribune, shares a recent report from Institute of Medicine of the National Academies that called for  univeral health care by 2010 for some of these reasons:

Some 18,000 people die unnecessarily each year because of lack of coverage.

Eighty percent of people without insurance or Medicare or Medicaid live in families with at least one working member.

Four out of 5 uninsured people in this country are U.S. citizens.

Even one insured person in a family can put the financial stability and health of the whole famly at risk

The number of ininsured individuals under age 65 is large and growing and has persisted even during periods of strong economic growth. 

Now we both know there are some problems with universal health care as delivered around the world. On the other other hand, being the richest country, and a leader in health care technology...it's odd so many people can't afford quality health care and the ripples from this single statistics spread throughout our economy. Sick ailing workers and their simliar-situated family members can't be productive for our economy.

Consider this: as a nation we rank roughly 41st among ALL countries for rate of infant mortality. Slovenia...SLOVENIA...ranks 15 spots higher or 2 infants better per 1000 births. Slovenia....Our infant mortality rate is 3 times worse that of Singapore. 6.33 deaths vs their rate of 2.3. So, quality health care is possible in a capitalist, market-driven, entrepreneurial, competitive, productive, growing economy competing successfully in the global markets. Just ask Hong Kong and Japan. They're ranked 3  and 4 in this category.

Links for infant mortality stats:

* CIA World stats

Hospital Staph Infections: 10 times worse than expected

A recent study found that over 1 million hospital patients are infected annually with staph infections. That number is 10 times higher than previous estimates.

Over 48,000 hospital patients may be dying from methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, far more than previously thought, the study suggests.

These results are included in a recent report  from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control & Epidemiology (APIC). The Chicago Tribune obtained the report over the weekend and made it front page news today. Rightfully so.

The Summer's First Storm

June 21 is the first day of Summer, right? So it makes sense it would offer the first summer storm, too.

Here's a link to my Flickr photo set from the storm. My wife and I were out and about in the storm taking pictures.

This is my wife's favorite of the set.

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This is my favorite of the set.

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Pieta Brown with Bo Ramsey at Cafe Paradiso

Pieta Brown and Bo Ramsey plan to stop June 29 at Cafe Paradiso here in Fairfield, IA. Show starts at 8:00 PM. Thrills and chills and satisfying artistry likely start at 8:01.

I've seen both live, Pieta most recently. I saw her as part of the event for Gov. Culver with Joe and VIcki Price and the Rev. Al Green.

Pieta sings her poetry. Combine that with her voice and playing...well now you've got power, honesty, passion and that whole soul thing...rare and personal.

I said then she has the voice that steals your soul, makes you want to offer it up anyway if she's overlooked you. Luckily, she seems to be honest and has a fine soul of her own, not needing anyone else's in order to have a complete life.

You're all safe in other words to be thrilled and chilled with her singing and playing.

Bo's coming along to play with Pieta...I've seen him play in Fairfield, whew, long time ago. Very satisfying.  He played slide guitar on Lucinda Williams' debut cd. Lucinda has a fine voice and all, a tremendous writer...and then along comes Bo and his slide guitar. Bo's playing is poetry. His amp is his heart. Look close at the lead coming from his guitar...it circles around and plugs right into his heart.

Now they're going to play together...

Think it might be great? Yeah. Probably. Pretty much what we expect to happen next Friday night.

Our friends, Steve and Meret, owners and purveyors of all things Cafe Paradiso are putting this together. This is the 2nd concert we've sponsored with Steve and Meret and Cafe Paradiso. The first one was with The Roches: a great night of music, commentary, community.

That's kinda the purpose: Music, commentary, community. We'd been wanting to invest in, give back to, the community. Cafe Paradiso already does so much with their commitment to the arts here in Fairfield. They're such great people. (ok, I've said this to your face...SMILE) And it seemed best to invest in them as a resource and leverage our resources to bring more to our community. So we did, done and will do.

Come on down. Cafe Paradiso, Friday Night, June 29: Pieta Brown and Bo Ramsey. Hope to see you there.

Photo from Des Moines Register and their performance at the Englert in Iowa City.  Note: You see this line struck through. It's because I was asked by Kathy Hickman, the Executive Assistant to the Editor of the venerable Des Moines Register, to remove the photo of Pieta Brown and Bo Ramsey from the site. Ms. Hickman wrote, not to me, but to one of our sales agents....Linking to the Register is fine - we just don't allow our photos or stories to be put directly on other sites. Funny. Funny for several reasons:

* Comments. I guess the comments field wasn't an option for her request.

* Contact me. On the blog is a link to send an email directly to me. Guess that wasn't an option.

* Linking to the Register is fine...Funny. So, if I'm hearing you right, it's ok for me to spend my time to drive viewers to your website, that will build traffic to your website, as I've done many times over the years...but I can't entice readers to visit your site by giving them but a glimpse of the content they'd find at your site if they but clicked on the link I provided to your site...the one with all the advertisements that drive revenue to the venerable Des Moines Register. It's ok if I invest my content with time and money to drive visitors to your site, Ms. Hickman, to help boost your viewers and ad revenue...just don't expect even thanks much less help.

I once wrote to the editor of the venerable Des Moines Register to point out that every other newspaper in Iowa can include sports scores from events that end as late as 9:30 the previous night. But not Iowa's newspaper. Nope. No scores or reports from events ending after 8:30.

They were behind the times, then. They're behind the times, now.

That's but one of the reasons why I stopped buying their paper.

Now I'll stop linking to it.

Ms. Hickman, you're welcome for all the earlier links to stories at the Des Moines Register that I've offered free-of-charge.

For the record, the venerable Des Moines Register is the first publication...ever...to ask me to remove links to their site, even when it's a photo from their site I've used to link to their site. I've shared content and photos on this blog from many newspapers and publications, always with their name hyperlinked to their site. The Des Moines Register is the first publication to ask me to not drive visitors to their site by discussing it on mine. Keep up the good work.

Chairman Bill's Harvard Commencement Address

Bill Gates delivered the commencement address at the recent graduation ceremonies at Harvard.

Near the end of his speech he offers this:

When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given - in talent, privilege, and opportunity - there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us.

Here's how he ended:

I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world's deepest inequities ... on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.

Good luck.

Interesting. Interesting guy.

Link to the speech from The Age.

Shouts for Jobsites

Jobsites is a brand new blog written by Deepak Singh from Noida, Delhi/NCR in India. His very first post is Jobsites - The New Research Tool - 1, published Sunday June 17.

Welcome.

Ok. Full disclosure requires I share how I found Deepak's blog. He listed my blog as one of his favorites. Hey. Vanity, thy name is [both genders]. 

But after reading his post, he's somebody you should read along with me. He's articulate, well-written, well-read, passionate about his mission and clients, sees the world from a different refreshing perspective. And who knows, maybe we can share some thoughts on outsourcing and the global economy from personal perspectives.

Deepak, welcome to the blogosphere. Thanks for the shout.

One more role to play: Dog-runner

I've added one more role/hat to wear in my life: dog-runner.

We have a 90-lb lab. Auggie. That's him in the pic.

If he runs (if I run him...), he's sweet and mellow and relatively mindful...as a less-than-2-year-old puppy can be. If not, he's a bit willful as we say...with a 3-lb kitten around that can be dicey.

I used to run him in the woods and trails behind our offices. But with the changing weather patterns, the lack of deep frost through the winter, it's now a haven for ticks. 25 ticks were pulled off him in the 24 hours after our last run in the woods.

Now I take him on leash for a 4-4.5 mile run. He's a good partner after the first mile when he realizes he's running at my pace, not the other way around.

I still kick his butt up the last hill...but then I'm not wearing a fur coat either. And on an all-out sprint...through brambles...after rabbits...he rules.

I'm not alone in this new role. Dog-runners are the newest uber-hip indulgence for  the dog of the house. But I seem to be alone when it's me doing the running, not a hired hand. And then it's not so uber, expecially in summer.

A Million Little Pictures

A Million Little Pictures...interesting, innovative project. 300 disposable cameras sent to volunteers around the US. Each camera has 27 frames. That creates a possible gallery of 8100 pictures.

Here's what the organizers say:

Call it a science experiment. Call it a push of artistic expression. We're not sure what to call it. What we do know is that we want to see how many different ways a collective can interpret the same subject.

Here's what I say: Cool.

Link from ThisNext.

Sparks Flew...

Mark Hurst's Good Experience offers a crash course in innovation with a link to a great article on innnovation by David Bodanis. It's called Sparks Flew...He shares the secrets of innovation. The article's well worth the time investment to read. Here's a few I liked:

* Find an innovator with incentive

* Tell him to develop a dictatorial streak.

* But make sure he listens.

* Tell your innovator to make plenty of mistakes and make them quickly.

* [T]ell your innovator to try the reverse of what everyone else is doing....(Try doing that as a parent or a manager...)

's good stuff.

2 Birds and a Squirrel

I was driving the county roads early this morning when I came up on a baby squirrel in the road. He clearly didn't understand his settings, his surroundings, the rules of the road so to speak.

I began to honk my horn...with his actions seeming to say "what's that funny noise...?" I kept honking...he kept playing...in the road...I slowed down, slower, slower, s-l-o-w-e-r and then 2 meadowlarks (I'm pretty sure they were meadowlarks) started flying directly at  my windshield. They'd swerve up and then directly into my windshield just barely avoiding it. They kept repeating it until I stopped. Dead stop. Middle of the road. And then baby squirrel got the picture, lesson learned (and survived) and scampered off the road. Then they disapeared.

It took me a minute  to realize what happened.  Helping each other; Protecting each other; Selflessly protecting the innocent at risk of their life. And not necessarily one of their own, either. ( Squirrels and birds don't share much of the same DNA I expect (I'm an artist...don't quote me on this one). ) But part of their community; they both need to survive if their community survies. And..no one else was there to protect that young 'un...so they did a different kind of fly-by to protect him/her.

Somewhere, somehow, there's something to be learned here as we see a growing disparity in incomes, a greater share of wealth in a smaller number of hands, a growing divide along silly lines of argument in almost every area of our community. It's the differences that unite us, give our community strength and flexibility and one more reason to marvel at possiblities. Our community only grows and prospers to the extent we all grow and prosper.

I don't know... Thanks for listening.

Top Ten Productivity Websites

From Wendy Boswell at About.com, The Top 10 Productivity Websites. 

PPT: heaven or hell?

Heidi Miller , Talk It Up! blog, offers some thoughts on Worst. PowerPoint. Ever. and a link to a very funny PowerPoint presentation that explains it all.

If you can't make a presentation without powerpoint...maybe you shouldn't. Like Ms. Miller says It's a powerful tool. And like all tools...it's who's using it that makes it work.

Page Views Don't Count

No, they don't. Even if you could count them in a systematic, consistent, manner...even if a 3rd party could do it...even if you could match up page views and impressions...they're irrelevant, ultimately.

What counts are...leads, prospects. What counts is your phone ringing. What counts is your conversion ratio. What counts are evangelistic employees who create evangelistic customers. What counts are the number of referrals you generate.

Those you CAN count. You better count 'em. They're cheaper to generate and offer a sustainable business model...compared to page-view marketing campaigns.

Max Kalehoff at Engagement by Engagement shares some thoughts on this at Yahoo Explains What's Wrong with the Page-View Metric. He links to more thoughts from Peter Daboll, Chief of Insights at Yahoo, who points out why page-view Web metrics are so irrelevant.

I'm an intern for WSJ

WSJ just offered me the chance of a lifetime...be a summer intern as a marketing/pr rep for their paid site. I was giggly as a teenager at the chance.

Here's how it works:  I can work from home or my current offices or any wi-fi spot.  They'll send me, as a blogger, some free content. And if I find it interesting I can blog about it. ( See. It's free. And you can read it too. ) 

I, as an unpaid summer intern, can donate my time, my infinite charm and grace, and celebrated (sic) writing skills for free in spreading their free, but limited, content  and news.  For the good of man, woman, pets, domesticated and wild animals. It's all good. 

Here's where the unpaid summer intern opportunity comes in. Their free content they'll share with me ( as I'm a blogger ) is actually...yes, you got it, possibly free advertising for their paid site. You see if I volunteer to blog about it then I can help generate WOM for their content, their site, hopefully enticing my readers to pay for WSJ's content.

Of course I accepted. It's free content from WSJ! 

I'm so excited to have a summer intern position ...AND with the WSJ, too! Mr. Murdoch, you're not the owner yet, but you will be soon. I want to introduce myself and say I'll work really hard to promote your site for free. Thanks for the opportunity. You won't regret it.

Search Engine Paradox

Last week, this week(?), I found in my mail a large, plastic-wrapped, direct mail piece from Microsoft. The front said I could Get up to $100 in free** clicks, plus 60 days of campaign support. And on the back was Search Master Steve's enticement that inside would be something to help you hit your client's search marketing goals.....

With gratitude to Search Master Steve...I had a couple of questions:

* So...Search Master Steve, you're using a direct mail piece to tout the power of your online Pay-Per-Click resource, MSN.

Huh. Ok.

Clearly, one could envision that being a white-flag of surrender for the  power of MSN and its search engine capabilities for advertisers...that you have to use another advertising media to promote it...that you are forced to use direct mail (one of the most inefficient, ineffective,  means of advertising) to promote  a Pay-Per-Click resource  (Pay-Per-Click often consider the most efficient media, outside of word-of-mouth).

One would think if the most efficient form of advertising was also effective for you, that you'd use that media to promote it....

Search Master Steve. There's some inconsistency here that belies your enthusiasm. Why did you need to use direct mail...?

* And you're following all the rules for creating lumpy mail, as John Jantsch calls it, to entice me to open this package that rests unopened now over a week later on my lap as I type...?

* And your direct mail list service shows Conference Calls Unlimited is an ad agency... and that we in that role would promote the use of Pay-Per-Click engines. See first point re: the lack of effectiveness of direct mail. I believe your direct mail list manager needs some help, too. We're not; we don't.

* When you spell free with 2 e's and 2**'s, the 2**'s cancel the 2 e's of free. That makes it...not...free.

So, what did we learn here? Well, when I saw this box from MSN...I laughed and said Oh great. An offer from MSN, the search engine no one uses. That's what we learned.

There's life without Google...!

OMG....Oh...My...God. I've just learned that there's other search engines than Google. The Optimized Life rates some of these including Clusty, FoodieView, Blinkx, and more.

Check it out.

Shake free the manacles...open your eyes...to the world other than Google.

Oh. And there's a site that offers you Google search results while offering Google an anonymous IP address so they can't track your searches. Scroogle.ORG is the site. It works.

3 Things You Can't Do to Your Team

Wil Schroter blogs at GoBIGNetwork. He writes on the 3 Things a Founder Can't Tell Their Team.

He's right on all 3. I need to do better at them all.

"Culture eats strategy for lunch"

Itzblogging big offers this quote from the CEO of MERCK. They include his quote to talk about how A hiring culture beats a hiring strategy any day of the week.

It's the old top-down, disconnected approach vs the organic, engaged, bottoms-up approach. One's good for executives to use as preening backdrops in board meetings; one builds a company.

Ultimately, your hiring culture IS your hiring strategy, regardless of the document that's dropped on your desk that says something different. The document's thrown away at the end of the day (funny term to use today). What's left are the employees who'll hire the colleagues that will fit within their culture.

Blogging Vs. PR

Media mentions...good for PR.

Blog mentions...good for driving web traffic that leads to buyers.

So...small business owner....which do YOU want? PR or buyers?

More on this at Selling to Small Business and their post: The Value of a Media Mention vs a Blog Post.

Health Care: One Area Where You Don't Get What You Pay For

The old truism of you get what you pay for doesn't apply in health care. Last week's article in the NY Times, In Health Care, Cost Isn't Proof of High Quality (blog-friendly link) shares this:

Stark evidence that high medical payments do not necessarily buy high-quality patient care is presented in a hospital study set for release today [Thursday, June 14]...

“For most consumers, the fact that there is no connection between quality and cost is one of the dirty secrets of medicine,” said Peter V. Lee, the chief executive of the Pacific Business Group on Health, a California group of employers that provide health care coverage for workers.

Sadly, in the case of health care, the old truism of buyer beware is ever more important.

DEMOblog

DEMOblog, the launchpad for emerging technology, shares the results of DEMO 2007, presentations from hot, innovative, companies. Lots of innovation around...yep, social media, creating communitie's of users, easy sharing of data and experiences. Check it out.

Here's the ones that catch my attention:

Vuvox Network

Yodio

Innovation Speed Limits?

Do you recognize this sign?

Is it posted in different ways in your company, from endless and pointless meetings, to a culture of discouragement, to a top-down, command and control culture, to HR policies successful at driving off the best and brightest?

It's posted in the parking lot of the local high schools.Too many corporations post in their hallways and offices regarding change and innovation.

Talkin' WOM, word-of-mouth, at Duct Tape Marketing

Some posts on WOM, word-of-mouth, at with my colleagues* at Duct Tape Marketing Blog Channel:

* John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing, What's Your Referral Number?

I can tell you that the relative health and success of most businesses can be gauged by this simple factor - how many clients refer friends, neighbors and colleagues.

* Dr. Ivan Misner / Patrick Carney, Referrals for Life, in Patrick's titled: Contact Spheres - A Great Way to Build Your Business.

* Bill Balderaz, The Buzz Saw, in his post titled: Get the Millenials Talking.

There has been a lot of coverage lately about the graying of MySpace and the amount of WOM Boomers generate. But you still need to trust your instincts... teens generate a lot of word of mouth and they do it fast.

* I blog with them at Business Life.

Small business resource: DailyHub

A social network with a focus: small business tips and resources. DailyHub.

Link from the man, the legend...John Jantsch*.

* standard disclaimer re: John Jantsch: friend, customer, I'm a fan of, etc., we've sent our customers to his workshops, etc...

Protecting your online privacy: who's worst?

Google. At least according to this report from Privacy International titled: A Race to the Bottom: Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies. They sight the numerous deficiencies and hostilities in Google's approach to privacy that go well behond those of other organizations...

Health Care Solution: Online transparency for costs and quality

From Kelly Montgomery at About.com's health insurance blog, California Medical Group Posts Prices Online:

HealthCare Partners Medical Group, the largest physician group in California, recently began posting pricing information on their website.

Nothing like openness and transparency to bring about conversation and ideas and solutions and decisions based on data.

That's why the step to by Medicare to Release Hospital Death Rates in June...will create an interesting conversation in a number of communities. Link also from Kelly Montgomery. Included in her post are links to further articles at USAToday and the site where these rankings will be posted. This is but a first step.  Detailed reports of the hospitals' death rates will not be released, nor will a full list of all hospital death rates from heart attack and heart failure. This list will only include the best and the worst....But hey, it's a start.

Alternative Fuel Finder

Doug Mitchell, Moments of Clarity, shares a link to EPIC's alternative fuel finder mapping tool. Put in your city and state and you'll find a list of nearby alternative fuel sources.

Cool. It's resources like this that will make alternative fuel a reality for us.

Thanks, Doug.

Health Care Solution: Using More, Costs Business Less

From David Elbert at the Des Moines Register y'day: Reducing Upfront Medical Payment Cuts Costs

Connecticut-based Pitney Bowes found that lowering medical co-payments for its 35,000 employees and creating other wellness incentives boosted its bottom line by lowering overall health care costs.

Invest in your employees' health and you'll save money. Make programs available to insure, improve, their health...you save money. Invest in your number one asset, your colleagues, and you'll save money.

Seems pretty straight forward.

gasp...Congressman Sought [Donations]

Last week, I saw this headline: Congressman Sought Bribes. (NY Times, reg'n req'd.)   And it's the story of a congressman whose refrigerator reportedly contained something other than breakfast waffles and ice cream. Ok. So he had a different banking system...Back in the Depression people kept their money in their mattresses...and he insists on cold hard cash...literally.

But my point isn't a standup routine at his expense though he does provide lots of material...in his 'frige mostly...but seriously.

I've always said there's no difference in our system than their system. Here we call 'em donations. There we call 'em bribes. Here we call it pork-barrel politics; There we call it bribes. Here we call 'em commissioners or secretary's at government agencies  held by family members; there we call 'em a government controlled by family members. Here we call 'em cabinet secretaries and ambassadors; there we call 'em cronies and friends.

It's not that our system's all that different. We just manufacture (and find it convenient to accept) better spin on it. It keeps us focused on shopping and Lindsay and Paris.

Gary Harpst Interview: Summary of Six Disciplines Approach to Small Business Excellence

The 5th conversation in our series with Gary Harpst, author of Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses that Learn, Lead and Last is available. Here's the mp3.

Honestly, I think this may be the best of the 5. Listen to it, let me know your thoughts.

Here's the feeds for the entire series:

rss.

iTunes

I've had the pleasure of spending 4-5 hours over the past few weeks talking with Gary Harpst about his book, Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses that Learn, Lead and Last. 

While I'm happy to see 2-3 hours freed up each week moving forward, I'm sad to see this be the end of our podcast series. I'm sure we'll talk again in the future, maybe when his new book comes out.

But there's a blog on Six Disciplines, written by Skip Reardon. It's excellent content, crisp, sharp and focused. I'll be able to sate my need for Six Disciplines content by reading this blog until Gary's book is published next year.

The recording deserves more than this brief post. (But my step-son's wedding, my wife's scheduling, and my lack of packing preclude more than this, though...I'm just offering this in the spirit of transparency and authenticity.) 

Featured Blog: Jill Konrath, Selling to Big Companies

Jill Konrath's blog, Selling to Big Companies, is a Typepad Featured Blog.

Sahhhh-Loot!

It's about time, too. Jill's a great writer. And when you add her great content, wisdom and knowledge and tips and stories and profiles, on Selling to Big Companies it's a blog you should read, subscribe, comment on, give her a shout.

I blog with Jill, etal, at the Duct Tape Marketing Blog Channel created and hosted by the legend, the man, John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing fame. Jill blogs on the Sales channel.

Congrats, Jill!

Customer Service Rediscovered

Socially Responsible Business Forum offers this:

1 out of every 2 retail customers experience poor customer service.

1/3 of those who experience poor customer service tell family, friends, co-workers.

1/2 of those who hear of a poor customer service experience won’t shop at the business in question.

A business that offers better customer service than a similar business close by can expect 30% - 40% more sales.

Pretty much sums it up. And these aren't surprise stats. The stats are near universal...So, why do so many companies look to cut costs first starting with ...any areas of direct contact with customers...I don't get it.

Delta's New Customer Experience Campaign

Mark Hurst, at his Good Experience blog, recently shared some thoughts on Delta's new customer experience.

Delta Air Lines has launched, in their words, a "reinvigorated customer experience." And following the recent example of Dairy Queen, so far the most apparent change is in the logo.

So far Delta seems to be following the corporate script of "slightly change the logo at huge expense and declare victory."

It's kinda the corporate version of shock and awe.  It's so inherently condescending...the assumption that customers need to be told that there's a reinvigorated experience they're having...right now...can't you feel it...can't you!?!

Customers are smart enough to know when we're having a reinvigorated experience. And as fellow flyers, we'll all know when we're having a reinvigorated experience, regardless of the airlines' marketing agency, slogan, campaign budget to tell us so. Trust us. We'll know.

We'll also know when we're experiencing a reinvigorated ad campaign with red replacing blue in the logo color scheme to hide the same 'ol, same 'ol service. Sigh.

Delta's campaign, like so many other corporate PR campaigns, still reflects the paradigm of corporations and ad/pr agencies that customers need to be managed...herded towards what the corporation wants them to feel and say and think and do. Told what to think. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...you're having a reinvigorated experience...dammit!!!! Pay no attention to your flight delays, the sounds of mooing as you're herded onto yet another boarding cattle call, the high prices, the declining service level as the airlines demoralize their troops one more time. No. You're having a reinvigorated customer experience. (In my mind's eye I see the Kevin Bacon character in Animal House being run over by the mob while he's shouting...all's well, all's well!!...It's the same with pr agencies convincing their clients to tell the customer mobs...all's well, all's well!! as the customers run for the nearest exit from their client's store. )

Mark points out the obvious (well, to everyone but the ad agency and the Board of Directors at Delta who were sold on this top-down, we-know-best, Leave-it-to-Beaver-esque campaign to tell customers what they need to think...):

...investing in advertising and visual "branding" often takes away resources from improving the actual customer experience.

Mark wrote about it at Budgeting for Advertising and the Customer Experience.

A reinvigorated customer experience is what happens when a company invests in its customers and employees, not their ad agency's delusions and budget goals.

Wanted: VP of High-Touch Marketing

Keith Ferrazi writes in BrandWeek that a new position is needed to deliver a true intimate marketing relationship, one that's personal, authentic, real...one that offers a coordinated approach with you, your customers, your vendors and....This new position is: VP of HTM, High-Touch Marketing.

The vp of HTM, reporting to the CMO, is a new corporate hybrid—part relationship-management strategist, part sales-support executive, part events planner and part administrative coordinator. Overall, he (or, increasingly, she) has only one job, engendering communication between executives within the company and their most valuable constituents outside of it: clients, media, analysts, partners and prospects.

I understand he says outside. But I think he's overlooking the #1 corporate asset: employees. After all, they, we, are the ones who actually, really-truly, no-one-else-can, deliver the product/service, experience, brand...a company promises to its clients, media, analysts, partners and prospects.

I love his work, his approach, his newsletter. But it's curious to see yet another high-profile marketer overlook...completely...the #1 corporate asset, the ones that have more knowledge about the customer and their wants and needs and the company's ability to meet them than all outside parties combined.  I don't understand why someone who's so focused on relationships, Business is Human - Relationships Power Growth, overlooks the power of these relationships.

Other than that, and granted it's a big that but still..., it's an interesting idea articulated well by Mr. Ferrazi. And if he adds employees and the power of their relationships to this discussion, I think he's on to something.

CEOs Favorite Song: Are You Lonesome [Tonight]?

Skip Reardon at Be Excellent blog shares the true story of CEOs lonely dayss. What Keeps CEOs Awake at Night: Part III. We're lonesome. We need more talent, more skilled people AND we need to keep those we have already.

CEO's version of Are You Lonesome Tonight?* (words and music by Roy Turk and Lou Handman, performed by The King. )

....Are we lonesome [today]?*

...Can we [find the talent]?

...Do the [chairs in our offices seem empty and bare]?

...Tell us [CEO], are we lonesome [today]?

It's the best I can do on short notice.

But Skip's post is so spot-on, true. Talent is the key to your organization's success. That's the question I spend 50% of my day pondering: how to keep it, where to find it.

Thanks, Skip.

Thanks, Elvis.

Small Business Tip: Start your day with a smile

Lisa Haneberg reminds me of the impact I can have on everyone in the company. Not me personally so much, but me in the role of a leader. My outlook and interactions can set the tone for the interactions within the company and with our customers.

And the impact of a leader in a small organization, and the tone of its members' interactions, is magnified. So it's vitally important I come in able to set the right tone for all of our interactions, internally and externally.

I advise everyone to come to work when you're ready to be focused, upbeat, happy, fun, ready to listen, ready to do. And in everyone's life...there's a day where you can get your game-face on by the time you arrive at the office. Great; no problem. Take a minute or two, do what you need to get that happiness and energy back. And then come to work. (Granted if it's going to take more than a few minutes, let us know. And if it's going to happen frequently, then let's talk and see what might be causing that and see what might be causing this reaction. )

I follow that advice myself. There have been the rare occasion where I'm not ready at the office drive entrance to be upbeat, clear, supportive...and set the right tone for the day. And in that case...I take the time to let the cloud pass before I come to the office.

Internal Networking with CompanyLoop

Social Networking is a term, well for me at least, reserved for expanding your networks OUTSIDE your current groupings of family and work and friends. And it's all about openness and transparency and viral spread...OUTSIDE to new members, usually in a new community.

What if, instead, you looked inward, looked inside your current company to expand your social network? What if you could take the power of social networking but contain it within corporate walls? What if sales knew what marketing was up to? Or IT knew what problems finance faced? What if you could give recommendations for a colleague or find out what they're working on...And you could do this in the open, spontaneous, organic, grass-roots manner, without formal meetings and their leaders and structure.

CompanyLoop, sometimes referred to as Worksona, may provide that solution. It's intriguing. If our company was a bit larger...we'd use it.

Shouts to Lisa Haneberg at Management Craft for the link.

Web 2.0, $12,000 and presto: A sensation!

Guy Kawasaki shares his story, By The Numbers..., of how in today's web 2.0 world you can do with $12,000-ish (or less if you're not stupid or lazy) what would have required millions in years past, the glory days of dot-com, miracle.

It's a good read.

It's a good reminder that it's in our hands, not theirs.

It's a good reminder in this national economic upheaval that creativity and schmoozing and initiative and a li'l more creativity and some gut-checks and risk-taking and good communication skills and good conceptualization skills...(all the things not taught on standardized tests...) are the keys to our success in this economy. No one's holding us back from gettin' some if we want.

And thanksto Guy's new endeavor...Truemors...the one he profiles in this post, I know that one of the members of Uriah Heep is back. Whew. I'd been so worried for the past 34 years for his fate. Now I can rest. Maybe I'll sponsor the site.

Who Killed Health Care?

Regina Herzlinger, author of Who Killed Health Care?, is interviewed at the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. She's very articulate, very passionate. This is her 3rd book on the health care system; she's an economist. So she knows a bit about it.

Here's an excerpt:

Q: You devote 5 chapters to 5 health care players that you actually call "killers." They are the hospitals, health insurers, employers, U.S. Congress, and academics. How do they all interact to make this such a bad or unresponsive or inefficient system?

A: I think there is a big 3 here, an iron triangle, and those are the hospitals, the insurers, and the government. They want power. It's very understandable. Everybody wants to be powerful, and the way they will be powerful is to institutionalize their role in the system...The final group is the human resource people in corporations. They turn to limiting the choice of health care programs for employees as a solution, the belief that big is beautiful and will result in lower costs. Very poor idea, but in a way I'm the most sympathetic to this group. Suddenly human resource managers are asked to look into the bowels of this $2 trillion system and figure out how to make it simultaneously more effective and efficient. Is that insane, or what?

Q: But to say these groups are killing their patients is pretty strong language.

A: Well, 300,000 people die every 3 years in hospitals, not with the problems that brought them in. What killed these 300,000 people? It's almost comic, and just a hairline removed from a tragedy.

Yes. Killing patients is strong language. But then so's 300,000 people dying every 3 years, not from the problem that brought them in. Can you describe that in polite, parlor language?

Blogging Your Community

Blogging the Block in The Washington Post today chronicles the efforts of neighborhood blogs in bringing the proverbial conversation to an uber-local level. There are profiles of 4 neighborhood bloggers and their efforts.  ( The article does require registration. It's free. Do it.)

Flirting with Coal

Oh my. The oil industry must be in a royal, slipper-throwing, snit now, all bunched up and nowhere to go.

Now it's the coal industry that our elected representatives have cast their wayward eyes toward...

Prodded by intense lobbying from the coal industry, lawmakers from coal states are proposing that taxpayers guarantee billions of dollars in construction loans for coal-to-liquid production plants, guarantee minimum prices for the new fuel, and guarantee big government purchases for the next 25 years. - Lawmakers Push for Big Subsidies for Coal Process

Oh. My. Gawd! 'a's so shameless. First it was biofuels and ethanol that was turning the heads and eyes of our elected officials, and leading them astray from the one true love of their life: big oil.

And Big Oil wasn't takin' it lying down (so to speak) either. No sir. They're throwing slippers when they heard about Congress flirtin' with that hussie Ethanol, threatenin' the oil industry version of a permanent headache by reducing their plans to add production capacity for gasoline.

And now...omg, why...they see their elected officials leaping now to another partner....

Why, I'm shocked. Shocked!

You know, honestly, this is where ABSTINENCE in federal programs and their funding could have some positive results.

Health Care Conflict: Local story, global conflict

I caught up with a friend of mine over lunch last week. Old stories, funny stories.

He told me of his chronic struggles with pain in his knees and how frustrating it was to find no real solutions...except pain killers or knee replacement (and he's too young). The pain killers he'd been prescribed were ibuprofen-based. So, at some dosage the wreckage in his stomach was worse than the pain in his knees.

So, being the mature adult he is, he visits his doctor for a solution. It's a doctor he's known for awhile; doctor knows him and his health for awhile. Seems like a good decision.

Doctor prescribes another pain killer, stronger, and without the destruction of his stomach/digestion from ibuprofen.  Good.

But he warns him...this pain killer raises your risk of heart disease....Ok. Not so good.

The punch line is that my friend's already had 2 heart attacks. So, does he need another agent for raising his risk of heart disease? Why would a doctor even consider prescribing it?

Maybe it's the commission on the prescription that's standard these days.

When he told me this it seemed like a bizarre, Brasil-like, scene where a patient at-risk for heart attack is prescribed a drug that raises the risk of heart attack...because that's the current procedure.

And then when you consider heart attacks and heart disease are the number one cause of death in America...you have to wonder how a drug that raises the risk of heart disease was able to get approved?

Maybe it's the commission the drug manufacturer stands to receive from its sale?

The Roches at Cafe Paradiso

Here's a pic from The Roches concert Saturday night at Cafe Paradiso. Steve and Meret, owners of Cafe Paradiso, arranged from a great evening with a great group. 

The pic is from their encore set.

The other side of ...[biofuel]

All's not sweet-smelling and rosy with biofuel plants. Des Moines Register in-depth study points out that

Iowa's ramped-up ethanol and biodiesel fuel production led to 394 instances over the past six years in which the plants fouled the air, water or land or violated regulations meant to protect the health of Iowans and their environment.

394 instances over 6 years =  60 per year or more than one per week. And that's with  but a handful of plants. And that's the violations recorded.

Oh well. Another corporate ag program, owned by non-residents, bringing only a handful of jobs, with a boatload of negative impact on the surrounding rural communities, the greatest economic return leaving the state for investors and driving the the future of the state ( students and college graduates) out along with it to greener and cleaner pastures .

Iowa's legislature seems enthralled with corporate ag business benefitting their non-resident owners, commoditizing our agriculture and communities, generating few jobs and even fewer quality jobs, generally ruining rural and smaller communities...and their water and air quality...CAFOs, CASINOs and now BIOFUEL plants...

Typepad Feature: Pre-approved commenters

As I delete and block comments from quirky people...which puts me in the position of manually processing comments from people I love, whose comments add to my day...I'm wondering if Typepad could create a feature where you can pre-approve IP addresses of those you want in your community. There's a feature to block comments from IP addresses. Why not the reverse: a list of IP addresses whose comments are always accepted and immediately published? Or does it already exist?

You've Graduated: Now try to find health insurance

From The Stanford Daily, Graduate and start searching for...health care?

Of the 46.6 million Americans who are currently without health insurance, 13 million are young adults — ages 19 to 29 — representing a disturbing increase of 2.2 million since 2000.

...66 percent of young adults report “missing needed care and/or having problems paying medical bills,” and 56 percent declined to see a physician when sick.

“It’s either an extra month of rent, or accidental coverage. I try to be mindful of washing my hands during flu season and do the preventive things I can in the meantime.”

Preventative health care reduced to merely washing your hands during flu season due to high costs of health insurance...

The Roches Concert Last Night

The Roches played last night here in Fairfield at a packed Cafe Paradiso.  Our friends, Steve and Meret, owners of Cafe Paradiso, brought them to town last night for a wonderful...2-hours-ish set. It's an intimate setting at Cafe Paradiso, room for about 100, 120 folks with seats right up to the top of the stage.

Their years of touring and playing together (and oh yeah, they're family) adds an element of comfort, ease, spontaneity, familiarity to their impressive professional skills. The vocal harmonies are still there. So's the humor, the playing, the passion, the love of their art.

We'll have pics from the concert later.

Conference Calls Unlimited was the corporate sponsor for this event. We have plans to sponsor a few more events of this talent level for our community, working with Cafe Paradiso. 

Welcome Value wIT

Welcome Bitsy Parker and  Value wIT to Typepad's Featured Blog list. I'm a week or two at least in this shout-out.

Somehow I stumbled on to this blog and my life's better for it. I can't remember a post I haven't enjoyed, some to the point of tears. From laughing.

Value wIT's description is: Noting Societal Berserkism and The Bizarre Behavior of Children and Their Parents. Now HERE's some material. A traditional anthropologist would have a field day of grants and money and field-hands to manage this material from our tribe. But her blog does it from the observations shared 2-3-4 times a week.  The power of blogs.