What Jeff Bezos Knows

Let’s not ‘turtle’ our way through the recession

Millennia of shared experience and painful years of direct experience have taught us to keep our heads down in times of crisis, lest we draw attention to ourselves. All this conditioning has trained us to think that if we don’t rock the boat, we might get through the storm OK.

From our herd instinct we have learned “there’s safety in numbers”. But marketers know that in order to get heard, this is a death wish. Only by standing out will we remain standing.

Is your company’s future frozen?

Guy Kawasaki has a question

The Ice Man Cometh… and Stayeth

In the 1880’s a new industry evolved: ice. Folks had these fancy new contraptions dubbed “ice boxes” to prevent their perishable food from spoiling. Milk, eggs, meat – all the foods that contributed to better health needed special preservation. The answer came in the form of the icebox. Its only drawback was the ongoing need for ice blocks.

That gave rise to ice harvesters who spent the winters cutting ice from frozen lakes and storing it for later delivery. No matter where you lived, you could get ice delivered. And no need to struggle with ice preservation. The iceman took care of that.

Customer to Competitor

Old Wine in a New Bottle

As late as 1999, Kodak clung to its belief in the permanence of film cameras, slowing down its foray into digital technology. The company had to fight back its way into the market when rivals from outside photography like Canon and Sony had already established an advantage. Kodak simply did not “get” the customer need for convenience that digital cameras catered to.