Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Relative Change

Change is a funny thing. When has the world not been in the midst of change? Search for this (I did): find me a time in the modern era when the business and social press were NOT consumed with issues of change. Then go back to the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Roman or Greek era, Biblical times, and even before. Change always seems to be in the air. So what’s the big deal? Read on….

Try this one on for size. We obsess over the idea of change. We pay homage to its presence, make the necessary cosmetic adjustments, “talk the talk”, and declare the victory of change – maybe because it’s easier than actually walking the walk…

Now before you howl, there are no doubt some obvious exceptions and many good examples of change. But here’s the rub. If we “change”, and yet keep on doing the same old thing – walking the old walk as it were – well, what have we really accomplished?

Let me bring it home… Search again, this time within our own industry, and see how far back the notion of “integration” goes. Synergy was the word used in the 70’s for example. In the 60’s multi-media took off. And do you think that linking channels is a new concept? That someone only recently thought it up? Think again…

Read on...>>

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

A Minimalist View

A last thought on evolution and the development of ideas – at least for now… Read on.

Where does evolution begin? Forget the theatrics and the theology. (Often hard to tell them apart, n’est pas?) Where does an idea, or a thing, begin?

For example, when it became clear that cars were going to dominate the roads, most of the craftsman who produced whips and halters and such for the horse and buggy crowd went out of business. That is, all except for the really smart few who saw the transition as a next step and started producing car parts. In fact, the famous “Body by Fisher”, a staple component of GM cars for many years, began as a carriage manufacturer before the mechanized age.

Bill Gates has said that Microsoft has failed only when trying to change basic behavior, while attempts to enhance what we do are always successful.

The I-Pod (I love my new Nano…) is a direct descendent of the Walkman, while your mouse and keyboard are the latest in a long line of innovations that go straight back to cave paintings and rock carvings. 

Read on...>>

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Cats and Cans

More food for thought on why things evolve or not….

Remember the car and its seeming inability to evolve significantly? I stress the word “seeming” (read your peers’ comments attached). Well, in looking for new thinking on the subject, I ran across this quote: 

“If Darwin’s theory of evolution was correct, cats would be able to operate a can opener by now.”
- Larry Wright

And why can’t they? Why do cats rely on humans to open cans and on their own abilities if cans aren’t opened? The answer is “Need”. Think on it – we have evolved cans, but cans are for human use. Worse come to worse, cats can still hunt. My sense is that if we disappeared and if all food was in cans, cats would be carrying can openers. By the way, try making the human analogy in reverse…

Read on...>>