the brand builder blog

On being the best.

0 comments Published 20080529 by Olivier Blanchard.

From Tim Coote's always brilliant and enjoyable blog:

“When people ask me how do you make it in show business or whatever, what I always tell them — And nobody ever takes note of it ‘cuz it’s not the answer they wanted to hear. What they want to hear is here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script, here’s how you do this — But I always say, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” If somebody’s thinking, “How can I be really good?”, people are going to come to you. It’s much easier doing it that way than going to cocktail parties.”
-Steve Martin.
All of the strategies and marketing angles will be trumped by this one piece of advice everytime - “Be so good they can’t ignore you”. If you’re catching balls in the end zone week after week or motivating people to do their best and it works week after week you will be noticed. People want to notice you because it’s why the world spins. It’s why people are able to get out of bed and go to work. Aspiring to greatness is the honey in the lion.

Damn, Tim. Well put.

Labels: being the best, success, talent, wisdom

Success: the hallowed anomaly

0 comments Published 20080320 by Olivier Blanchard.

Excellent little opinion about success (among other things) over at Seen Creative:

"You don't have the skeleton key. There are no rules, there are no templates, there are no secret ingredients. Everything is unique and everything is dependent on its own circumstance. You can write all the books, magazine articles, or blog posts you want, but someone will always be able to prove the exception. Something will always contradict.
One reason these businesses are successful is probably because their founders didn't take advice from stupid articles in Wired, or try to ride the latest meme sweeping the blogosphere. They understood that every situation is unique, and they needed to approach it as such. What's right is what works, not what previously worked."

Go here for the full post. (It's good.)

Right. In case you didn't already know it, cookie-cutter solutions don't generate true success. Companies that stifle innovation, rule-breaking, and re-imagining doom themselves to being indistinguishable from their competitors... or worse yet, barely relevant in increasingly competitive markets.

Don't ever underestimate the role that visionary leadership plays in a company's propensity to be a game changer (and by default a culture changer). If a company's leadership doesn't have a healthy mix of ambitious, obsessive and a clear vision, what is driving it, exactly? Where is it going? How will it get there?

If you haven't already added Seen to yout blogroll, now might be a good time to correct that frightening oversight.

Have a great Thursday, everyone. :)

photo by Christopher Wray-McCann

Labels: apple, innovation, rant, solutions, success

How routine kills brands.

0 comments Published 20070409 by Olivier Blanchard.

"The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow."

- William Pollard.

That's worth framing and hanging in every meeting room from Portland to Tahiti (via Paris).

Thanks to Tom Asacker for digging that one up for us, and for his fantastic post on the very topic I wanted to explore today: What traps should exciting new companies be on the lookout for? As you can imagine, this post was going to be long. (Or at least long-ish.) Thanks to Tom's impeccable timing, you won't have to suffer through another endless essay. (See? Your good deeds are already starting to pay off.)

Check this out (again, from Tom's post):

"Over time, unchanging relationships can turn into shackles that limit an organization's flexibility and lock it into active inertia. Established relationships with customers can prevent firms from responding effectively to changes in technology, regulations, or consumer preferences."

- Donald Sull
(Revival of the Fittest: Why Good Companies Go Bad an How Great Managers Remake Them.)

So... your new mission every day is to keep it fresh. That's it. Whether you're in the business of designing ads, repairing engines, selling shoes or answering calls from angry customers, don't ever, ever, ever let routine set in. Try different things. Learn something new from every customer. From every sale. From every design challenge. From every product launch. From every commercial you hear on the radio. From every movie you catch on cable. From the games your kids play. From magazines you've never picked up.

Keep it fresh. Shake things up. Kill the routine before it starts killing you.

Ad go read Tom's full post. It's very good.

Have a great Monday, everyone. :)

photo by F360: Pita posing for the camera.

Labels: agile creativity, arrogance, brands, relationships, routine, success