to check status or seek rapid feedback from another party, generally for a discrete and often time-sensitive reason; adopted from the computer networking term in which one machine sends a signal to another to verify operating status, generating a standardized response from the receiver; used in an attempt to give a technical sheen to something that would otherwise be quotidian, as in “I’ll ping Adrian tomorrow to check how the draft report is going”; related to tickle, which is a similar brief communication oriented to subtly ensuring that progress is being made
I’m a management consultant and writer serving organizations both large (Fortune 500) and small (nonprofit) on a range of strategic issues
Valuing what your customers don’t
Understand the true model
Posted on July 3, 2019
Fly the friendly skies
By today’s standards, air travel across the United States in the 1960s and 70s was strangely luxurious. Planes had roomy couch-like seats and usually weren’t full, elaborate meal services were the norm even in economy class, and both passengers and crew were elegantly attired.1 Health and safety standards were different too: flyers strolled aboard with no more screening than would be needed to board a bus, and flight attendants were ready with cigarettes and a light once the no smoking sign went off. For those with sufficient means, flying was a noteworthy occasion.
But these service levels enjoyed by past travelers didn’t result from altruism. The amenities arms race took place because airlines were legally forbidden from competing on the most basic dimension—price.
This was because a federal agency known as the Civil Aeronautics Board set fares, approved routes, and tightly regulated the entry and exit of participants. As a result, they were forced to find other ways to distinguish themselves from the pack, and they did so by finding diverse and ostentatious ways to enhance the passenger experience. Read more…
- On one 1200-mile flight, Delta Airlines even offered an 8-course first class meal. They were probably being generous in their definition of “course”, but still. ↩
- If it were legal some passengers would probably travel in a crate in the cargo hold, if it meant saving a few euros. ↩
- In the 1980s international economy class passengers on Pan Am received a gift box that included a razor, which while fascinating was of limited use to the children like me who received them. ↩
- In between midair sales pitches for co-branded credit cards, delivered by flight attendants who aren’t sure this is what they signed up for. ↩
- While most newspapers have done away with extensive stock sections a few shrunken listings remain, for those who can’t figure out the Google. ↩
- Which would boggle the minds of early 20th century transatlantic travelers, who had to spend 4 or 5 days in transit instead of the 7 or 8 hours it requires today. ↩
- One school of thought is that some journalism may only work if its nonprofit, and that approach is being taken in a few areas. ↩
- Much to the chagrin of many in old media, what they did care about was click-baity listicles. So goodbye to your Middle East bureau, hello to a millennial-friendly content farm in Brooklyn. ↩
pencils down
Posted on July 1, 2019
a condition that requires work in a particular area to cease completely, due to a deadline, external circumstance, an injunction from a superior, etc.; derives from the era of standardized tests administered on paper, during which students were strictly required to put down their writing implements upon the elapsing of a fixed time period; suited to analytically-heavy contexts, as in “We have to get the valuation data today because it’s pencils down tomorrow once the executive team arrives”; this term is the opposite of hands on keys, a more technologically current exhortation to continue working
Game shows and learning from unconventional strategy
Question the answers
Posted on June 26, 2019
Ready player won
Law student Chuck Forrest had been working on a disruptive new strategy, and now he would finally get to unleash it.
Forrest wasn’t in a typical competition. He was about to appear on the American game show Jeopardy, a now-iconic trivia program in which three players face a grid of clues, arranged by increasing dollar value along six themed categories. The contestant who rings in first and responds correctly gets to choose next. With the right answer and precise timing, anyone can take control and decide where to head on the game board.
The objective is simple: have the most money at the end of the game to win. Victors also get the chance to appear again the next day.1
Convention dictated that players start with the easiest, low-dollar clues at the top of the category and proceed downward to the more difficult ones. Games typically unfolded in predictable ways as contestants worked through clues sequentially. The show’s writers often built in a theme that revealed itself as a category was worked through, further reinforcing this approach. This style of play also made it easier for television viewers to track with the game.
A crucial fact is this pattern was not in any way enforced or required. It wasn’t part of the rules. Read more…
- Prior to a rule change in the early 2000s players were retired after five consecutive wins. Lifting that restriction would open the door for the captivating streaks unleashed by several people in the last fifteen years. Also the show tapes five shows per day for efficiency’s sake, so a win means you get 20 minutes to change outfits before competing again. ↩
- Like the NBA Playoffs, but for nerds. ↩
- Only the player with the most money banked gets to keep that amount. The other two get small consolation checks unrelated to their final score. ↩
- Until James Holzhauer came along, the highest one-day cash total was $77,000, and no one had come close to it for years. He broke this record a staggering sixteen times, resetting the record to $131,127. ↩
- Even without that layer Teslas are still rather pricy for customers, and the company’s stock price woes show that a stable financial model has yet to be uncovered. ↩
- When the next iPhone comes out priced at $1,000 just try offering $500 and see how the befuddled millennial salesperson at the Apple Store reacts. ↩
- It wasn’t enough for Saturn, which ultimately disappeared from the market, collateral damage in the 2008 economic collapse and bailout of the U.S. automobile industry. ↩
- When I played on Jeopardy, I had internalized the advantages of the Forrest Bounce and used it, but for some reason never considered Holzhauer’s money-maximizing clue selection. ↩
belt and suspenders
Posted on June 23, 2019
an extra-cautious approach that involves redundant elements in case one of them fails to perform as expected, used due to extreme prudence, perceived risk, experience, etc.; comes from the image of the gentleman wearing both a belt and suspenders (or braces, for the Brits) for the purpose of holding up his trousers, despite the fact that only one is necessary absent a highly-unlikely failure; in addition to noun form this term can be used as an adjective, as in “Keep both projectors live for the keynote, we need to go belt-and-suspenders given how important the CEO’s presentation is”; as with the original sartorial example, such a strategy can be clumsy or ungainly due to the additional backups involved
A tale of two presentations
The big idea
Posted on June 19, 2019
Triumph and disaster
Director Michael Bay is known for a long resume of blockbuster summer movies featuring his trademark emphasis on grand spectacle, including the liberal use of pyrotechnics.1 While critics have not been kind to his work, the studios that entrust him with their marquee franchises have happily raked in the profits, as his productions have collectively grossed billions of dollars.
In 2014 electronics giant Samsung sought an appropriate spokesperson for a new television it was about to launch. Given his reputation for visual effects Bay seemed the perfect fit. He was asked to participate in the premiere industry forum where the company’s latest technological achievements would be showcased.2 Sharing the stage with a company executive, Bay intended to talk up the potential of these new screens, leveraging his own experience as a prominent director.
The session began with the usual anodyne comments. Unfortunately for all involved, that was the only part that went as planned.
A missed cue and a momentary hiccup in the prompter from which Bay read his lines threw him off kilter, and he found himself unable to regain his place in the text, quickly bringing the session to a halt.3 His co-presenter attempted to steer him to a more general discussion—which should have been simple given his extensive background in the medium. Even that failed to rescue the floundering Bay. Read more…
- The plots are more often mechanisms for stringing together wild explosions instead of story exposition—My Dinner with Andre they are not. But not everyone needs something cerebral while digging into their massive tubs of theater popcorn. ↩
- Incidentally it had a curved screen, along with 3D television a feature that made little inroads in the market and has been quietly dropped by major manufacturers. ↩
- Red flag #1: if you’re delivering a presentation and need a word-for-word transcription to keep you moving, chances are you haven’t internalized the message you are delivering. ↩
- People were definitely talking about the presentation afterwards, but the focus wasn’t on Samsung’s new TVs. ↩
- Oh for those simpler days of yesteryear, when the iPhone 4 was state-of-the-art. If still around today they’re pretty much a paperweight. ↩
- Given Jobs’s legendary perfectionism and temper one can only imagine the unpleasantness afterwards. ↩
- Even Bay’s requisite apologetic post-event tweet read as a marketing message, designed to try once more to hype the televisions. ↩
- And if you’re regularly delivering messages you don’t care about, maybe consider a different line of work? ↩
optics
Posted on June 15, 2019
a term used to refer to the way something appears, in contrast to the original definition meaning the science of light and its effects; this usage likely arose due to superficial association of its technical origins with the act of viewing something in an attempt to appear proficient or masterful, as in “I don’t like the optics on this page, let’s change it before we share it publicly”; the word has been figuratively extended to indicate how an action could be perceived, especially in the context of public relations or politics, as in “Sure you could take a job with that donor, but the optics wouldn’t be great”
Work-life balance and seeing the fuller picture
Measuring what matters
Posted on June 12, 2019
On the mountaintop
Silicon Valley’s mythos is grounded in stories of scrappy entrepreneurs who upended their entire lives in pursuit of their mission. An archetypal example is Marissa Mayer, who started as employee number 20 at Google before rising through the leadership ranks, eventually moving to the top spot at Yahoo. She proudly notes that during the early years work demands would often keep her in the office overnight, as well as throughout weekends.1
This ethos of total dedication has influenced many other companies, and the image of the single-minded founder foregoing sleep, exercise, and personal attachments is a common one. This isn’t limited to the startup phase, as a similar mindset prevails in larger firms—those foosball tables and free cafés now de rigueur for the millennial-friendly organization might seem benevolent, but they are also a mechanism of further enfolding employees’ lives into the all-encompassing world of work.
The business world is not alone in valorizing such outsized dedication. British historian Niall Ferguson has received numerous accolades for his prodigious output of books, speeches, and television series unpacking topics in economics, finance, and international affairs. His academic career has included teaching and research at several of the world’s great universities. Measured by popular acclaim and impact he has reached the pinnacle of his profession. Read more…
- She also tosses out a 130-hour figure for her work week, which simple math and basic human physiology doesn’t really support for any sustained period. Even working nonstop from six in the morning to midnight seven days a week doesn’t get you there. Prospective Navy SEALs going through the notorious Hell Week with about five hours of total sleep aren’t subject to such demands for weeks on end, for good reason. ↩
- Including time with his young children, as he mentioned in another interview. ↩
- His hobby involves the over 100 cars and motorcycles he owns, which are far more tolerant than children of being ignored for a few weeks at a time. ↩
- Unless you’re paid in a currency experiencing hyperinflation, in which case comparisons quickly become impossible. ↩
- Although the debt-fueled consumer credit economy allows people to live beyond their means for a while, that façade comes crashing down eventually. ↩
- And given the current age of omnichannel media, Christensen’s brief article and talk on the matter was soon developed into a full book of the same name, in the same fashion as terminally-ill professor Randy Pausch’s viral “Last Lecture.” ↩
- So don’t. ↩
- A young Indian entrepreneur who established a global technology business in his teen years mentioned how it cost him a significant part of his childhood. While peers were playing and relating and exploring, he was grinding away in the office. ↩
- To paraphrase a quote from Jesus, what good is it to gain the entire world if you lose your soul? ↩
air-grabbed
Posted on June 6, 2019
(adjective) a less obvious way of suggesting that some idea, or more likely a particular statistic, was generated with no analytical support and thus was pulled out of the air, i.e., from nowhere; although derisory in implication, can be used to highlight the weakness of a particular figure in a self-deprecating way, as in “If you’re wondering how much faith to put in those market size estimates just remember the Japan figures were air-grabbed”
Creating together and the Starbucks effect
May I take your order
Posted on June 5, 2019
Café society
The earliest menus of the cafe that would eventually become the modern-day Starbucks deliberately mimicked the 1980s-era Milanese establishments that inspired the concept. Coffee options were limited and described in plain language, which was designed to introduce Italian permutations of brewed coffee and milk to American consumers long before terms like macchiato and doppio entered the vernacular.
Sizing was simple, with a standard cup for espresso drinks and a slight upcharge for a bigger one, logically named a “tall”—which over time has become the default smallest size on a Starbucks menu.1 The proliferating array of flavorings and sweeteners were not available, and concoctions like the Frappucino had not yet been conceived.2
From this simple beginning the chain has expanded its offerings such that there are now tens of thousands of possible beverage variations, fine-tuned to the most idiosyncratic patron.3 The rotating menu boards spotlight only the tiniest fraction of these, leaving the majority of options unknown unless discovered during a customer’s past experiences.4 Read more…
- The evolution of Starbucks’ sizes is a testament to expanding appetites. This original size is now known as a short, which although unlisted is still available on request. ↩
- With its birthday cake-levels of sugar helping to keep sales brisk, the Frappucino generates somewhere around $2 billion in revenue yearly. ↩
- The Starbucks website claims 87,000, though there are no supporting calculations to show for it. This means even the longest-lived person on earth could try a new variation every day of their life without coming close to exhausting the full range. ↩
- Or when something social media-friendly like the rainbow-hued Unicorn Frappucino got Instagrammed. ↩
- So for all of you venti half-caf sugar-free double vanilla pump no foam extra hot with a double cup and room for cream-types, just know that your uniqueness isn’t unique. Also being too precious with your order probably annoys the baristas. ↩
- And a market capitalization around $100 billion. That caffeine jones is profitable. ↩
- Even if you don’t know the POÄNG chair by name, you’ve probably seen it in a dorm room somewhere. ↩
- The large courses that many institutions have put online are a good example of the reverse effect. Completion rates are significantly higher when students pay a nominal fee for an official certification instead of joining for free. ↩
- An insight that underlies the Montessori model of education. ↩
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