All the information that is fit to mine

All we need now is fMRI hookup to the smartphone and the retailer will know exactly what the customer is thinking.

Stephanie Clifford enlightens us;

Through smartphones that signal someone’s location, stores and brands like Starbucks, Tasti-D-Lite, Macy’s and Pepsi are getting live information about when and where people are shopping. Some companies are turning Foursquare into a virtual loyalty-card program, while others are creating their own location applications, offering customers discounts or other rewards for shopping.

“It gives us immediate feedback for what’s going on in the marketplace,” said Margery Schelling, chief marketing officer of PepsiCo Foodservice. “That’s invaluable.”

A phone is a simple replacement for a wallet stuffed with loyalty cards, but the real appeal for stores is in the location information provided by Foursquare and other location-based applications. Retailers can track when customers actually enter their stores. Such data can be used to learn things about store traffic, such as when men visit versus women. And it’s easier to note when the most loyal customers visit.

“If you check into work, then you leave work, you check into a bank and then you check into a store, that’s a behavior that, in aggregate, we might use to transform the way we market to you in the offline world,” Mr. Bough said. “We might see dayparts that are more likely for you to check out of some place and go to the store.

Presence is projection.

John Baldini explains presence

Leadership presence therefore is more than a nice to have. More than an exterior sheen, presence is a reflection of deeply held values and a belief in one’s ability to do the job well enough so that people will want to follow.

Presence is projection not simply of power, but of sincerity, values and conviction. And as such it is something that leaders can use to leverage their influence in order to make themselves heard, understood and followed.

Chaos precedes creative breakthroughs

Mitch Ditkoff's post about unleashing the creative in everyone

Left-brained, logical people are rarely comfortable with ambiguity, chaos and the unknown. It seems messy. Disorganized. Downright unprofessional. Indeed, much of the Six Sigma work being done in corporations these days is to reduce variability and increase predictability.

Paradox alert!

If you want to get really creative, you will need to increase variability and help participants get more "out of control." Picasso said it best, "The act of creation is first of all an act of destruction." Tom Peters said it second best, "Innovation is a messy business."

Where is my cup of coffee

Betsy Berthin says it should be in your java rub chicken

Meanwhile, if you just can't get enough of it in your cup, you might consider using it to cook. For some time, coffee has been used as a flavoring for desserts, but it has excellent savory applications as well. See what it can do on the barbecue with our recipe for java-rub chicken.

Sit up straight

Harvey Black shares an insight into making people feel better, have them sit up straight.

Researchers asked college students to rate themselves on how good they would be as job candidates and employees. Those told to sit up straight with their chests out gave themselves higher ratings than those instructed to slouch while filling out the rating form. Once again, Mom was right.

When all seems lost in a negotiation

Christine Lagorio has some tips on handling a negotiation in limbo;

If a negotiation is going nowhere, and taking up too much of your time and energy, you may want to walk away from it. Before you do, entrepreneur Janine Popick recommends that you stop and think: What else can I or my company get out of this situation? Might someone else give the negotiations a try? Or perhaps you can use the bad situation as an opportunity to train someone at your company on how to deal with toxic clients

Not getting any worse

An AP story relates how the parked car is starting to move again.

The shift, which Jefferies restaurant analyst Jeff Farmer calls a "slow grind," began in late January and is gaining steam.

"They're not necessarily seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but there's a realization that things aren't going to get any worse than they are right now," Farmer said.

Small Business groups are petitioning the Fed not to raise interest rates, so things are definitely not getting worse

Believe the dots will connect

Steve Jobs in his commencement address at Stanford explained that you cannot connect the dots going forward, only backward. Since everyone lives their life going forward all you can do is trust that the dots will connect.

Do you believe your dots will connect?

Differentiation Startegy

The business dictionary defines differentiation strategy as

Approach under which a firm aims to develop and market unique products for different customer segments. Usually employed where a firm has clear competitive advantages

What does that actually mean? Could it mean saying "yes" when everyone is saying "no", could it mean going "small" when everyone is going "large", could it mean "less" when everyone is going "more". Dr Youngme Moon postulates that maybe it is about "letting go."

Letting go of all the notions the years of accumulated. Many of the notions are deeply rooted, intertwined within the fabric of our being and not so easily given up. Differentiation requires letting go. That seems really scary when in reality differentiation is the safest course.

Ground rules for the spread of ideas.

Steve Tobak lays out the ground rules to help spread your ideas

Ground Rule 1. There are some things you simply can’t control. Luck, for instance. Sure, you can improve your odds of getting lucky, mostly by putting yourself out there, being open to opportunity, and taking risks.

Ground Rule 2. Timing really is everything. If you do everything else right, the most likely thing to trip you up will be timing. Nailing everything below will help, but not entirely. That’s just the way it works.

Let it go!

Buying brand awareness

Margaret Heffernan has some pointers if your business needs to get the word out more aggressively.

1. Pay for results, not time. One company I know pays for column inches, another by the number of mentions in online and traditional media. This keeps everyone highly focused.
2. Use a virtual agency. A newer model for PR and advertising is the virtual agency that coordinates a network of gifted freelancers. With no expensive real estate to cover and no deadbeats, they have to keep busy. They can assign specialists to your needs at a lower project cost or retainer.

Hang out in your business

"The days are long but the years are short" Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen's insight reminds me to every once in while appreciate the moment. Life is fun when you are engaged and aware.

Perception, perception, perception, perception, perception

Tyler highlights the madness that is perception.

Because you are in Paris, you assume that women are fashion-aware, which colors all your judgments about dress, hairstyle, and other factors of appearance. Because you suppose the most stylish of intentions behind whatever the actual outcome, you will find seductive and ennobling qualities behind almost everything and anyone.

Be observed without judgment.

Seth lays it bare for all the world to see,

people learn to ship, they learn to do work that matters and most of all, they learn to ignore the critics they can never possibly please. The ability to choose who judges your work--the people who will make it better, use it and reward you--is the key building block in becoming an artist in whatever you do.

The trick is to look confident.

Pretending to know what you are doing is almost the same as knowing.


Catherine Rampell's article explains the findings of a study

Chief executives look more competent than the general populace, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are,

Have you heard, happy days are here again

Starbucks reported same store sales increase of 7%

• Consolidated net revenues increased 9% to $2.5 billion
• Comparable store sales increased 7%, driven by a 3% increase in traffic and a 4% increase in average ticket
  • U.S. comparable store sales increased 7%, driven by a 3% increase in traffic and a 5% increase in average ticket

Now if we can just correct the pesky underwater mortgage, real estate value declined 30% problem, this whole Great Recession thing will become a really bad memory.

Fast no is better than a long maybe

Anthony Tjan brings a little sanity to the yes, no , maybe dynamic.

"as always a fast no is better than a long maybe." I have since borrowed that sentence many times over. Too often people are not sure if they want a yes and instead create prolonged discussions because they are either: a) too embarrassed to say no, or b) just want option value.

1. Be clear on the "ask". I have seen people pitch us with brilliant clarity of ideas, but a cloud of ambiguity on what they want from an investment partner in terms of both capabilities and dollars
2. Set a firm deadline and sense of urgency. When meeting any prospective investor, customer, or buyer, set a clear deadline for a decision. In most cases you can get to a definitive yes or no just by being clear about a close date.
3. Agree to and adhere to a post-pitch process. Outline next steps for the follow-up. What additional documents or meetings are required for a decision? When will these occur and will there be sufficient time given the deadline at hand? If nothing is required, agree to the next follow-up date and the form of the follow-up. Make the follow-up timing shorter than your gut tells you: if you think you should follow up in two weeks, say a week. A follow-up in two weeks often means that the person is revisiting the issue in 13 days (the day before follow-up) versus six days for a follow-up in a week.
4. Affirm the silent no and provide an out. Become better at trying to confirm the silent no. Schedules change, people ask for more time, and other priorities take over. Know how to escalate to the no. Prolonged silence or indecision requires a forcing mechanism. Something along the lines of "I want to thank you again for your time considering this and realize that now may not be optimal timing. Can I assume a pass for now?" Human nature is more conditioned to a yes or maybe, rather than a no. Politely providing an out is usually appreciated by the other side, and it is a good way to elicit a definitive decision or gain clarity on the best next step.

let boldness be thy friend

The Tribune reports that Friday 4-23-10 is "Talk like Shakespeare Day" in Chicago.

Mayor Richard Daley inaugurated the special day last year. This year, Daley encourages citizens in his official proclamation to "let boldness be thy friend and celebrate Shakespeare by vocal acclamation of his words."

leftovers are vintage cuisine

Rick Asa's article explores

what dietitian Jackie Newgent calls "vintage cuisine" waiting to be morphed into something delicious.


It's not just wasting the food, although Americans do a good job of that: anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of all the food the nation produces is wasted. But when we allow good food to make penicillin in the fridge, we also are wasting trillions of liters of water that went into its production, plus untold dollars in energy and transportation used to get it to our plates. Not to mention all the methane it produces once in a landfill. Let's leave that to the cows.

This isn't a guilt trip, though. Leftovers are tasty. In just two pages of her book, Newgent describes how to turn pizza into an omelet, cooked vegetables into hummus, steak into canapés, cooked rice into a better burger, turkey into tacos and salad with dressing into "pesto."