Burger King has Lost Their Wallet

Very cool and timely promotion from the folks at BK. It's not quite as exciting as subservient chicken, but its clever and has legs. Enjoy.

http://tinyurl.com/5j75lz

Update on the Insignia Open Principles Test

Yesterday, we reviewed the first round of creative for the newly designed Insignia website. I was so excited to see so many of the ideas of our Open Principles experiment incorporated into the design. If the end-site captures the passion and potential of our community, it will significantly change how a product manufacturer approaches website design and stakeholder engagement. I think we are starting to see the awesome potential of our approach. Thank you all for your contributions!

So, you may be asking what the next steps are for this experiment. I am working with Hanson to share our work and receive your input. After all, Insignia is our brand. The process will be an iterative one and we do not yet have a firm plan on how to do this. As our ideas become more solidified over the next week, I will share how you can stay engaged.

Thanks again and I look forward to continuing this journey with you.

More Musings on Leadership

On Leadership and the Moment of Truth

Back to my favorite topic - leadership. I was watching the press interview Ray’s rookie pitcher David Price after Tampa Bay’s Game 7 win in the ALCS. The reporter asked him if he was nervous when he entered the game in the 8th inning with the bases loaded and the clutch hitting JD Drew at the plate. Drew had already torched the Rays in Game 5 and the American League Championship that once seemed a lock was slowly slipping away. Price responded by striking out Drew and then retiring the Red Sox in the ninth. What was most impressive about his performance, which Price quickly relayed to the reporter, is that he wanted the ball. With the game on the line in the biggest game in franchise history, at arguably the defining moment of the franchise, a 23 year old rookie sought the spotlight.

Thus, another element of great leadership - Leaders relish the opportunity to perform at the highest level. They want the ball with the game on the line. They relish the spotlight. They’ve learned to take the pressure and nervous energy and focus it on achieving outcomes. They take charge when their environment is most chaotic. They have an odd sense of clarity and self-assuredness when others are in doubt. I’ve heard it many different ways, but what it comes down to is that leaders have a strong desire to be where the action is. Perhaps it is because they understand the magnitude of the outcome, perhaps it stems from a desire to grow and learn, or perhaps it is simply their ego that drives them. But for whatever reason, they are there.

On Leadership and Trust

I recently read a blog posting by one of my esteemed colleagues, Steve Bendt, who wrote about brands that he trusts and why that is important to him. It got me to thinking about the role that trust plays in leadership, and it’s an important one. The fact is, people trust leaders, not because they are in first place, but because leaders invest heavily in the people around them. The great leaders that I know spend as much time investing in people as they do investing in strategy. They create an environment in which others can be successful. It’s a bit of a quid-pro-quo, where each party is bound by a common interest – the success of the other party.

Trust is important because it creates an irrational loyalty. Leaders who have established trust naturally have teams that perform at a high level. Everyone pitches in for the good of the team because they know in the long run it will be good for the individual as well. I have seen trusted leaders who have developed a bit of a cult following, where employees will follow them no matter where they go, what they do or what projects they work on. Now, imagine if your brand had customers like that.

If we project this idea out to brands, it becomes abundantly clear that most brands fall short in creating this type of relationship, and thus fail to generate trust. If we placed trust at the center of our marketing strategy, I believe our marketing plans would look a lot different. We would spend a lot more time engaging directly with our customers on an individual basis and a lot less time pushing messages through mass media. I think this is where the power of social media comes into play. Brands that can engage consumers meaningfully through direct dialogue will have a significant advantage because of the trust factor. But, not every company will be able to do this. I have learned through the Insignia Open Principles test that culture will be the number one factor in determinging which companies will be successful. Those that embrace openness will win.

On Leaders and Ideas

I’ve been thinking recently more specifically about leadership in my organization and how it manifests itself. The conclusion I’ve come to is that leadership at all levels is more important at my employer than at any other organization I’ve been involved with. The reason is the organizational design employed by our CEO. The design principle is controlled chaos, which is aimed at two things – destroying bureaucracy and empowering our people.

First, the organizational design favors leaders because it emphasizes skill sets that leaders are inherently better at than the general population. Over the course of their careers, leaders have developed the skills related to vision and persuasion. Leaders are also accustomed to making tough, real-time decisions with minimal information in chaotic environments (why do you think the military places so much emphasis on leadership development?). Therefore, leaders are inherently better equipped to see the opportunity, evaluate it and act upon it with confidence and conviction.

Second, the organizational design encourages ideas, but discriminates against selection of any one idea. This actually creates a role and an opportunity for strong leaders. One of the principles of controlled chaos is the notion that ideas can come from anywhere in the organization. Therefore, there is no shortage of inputs, and frankly, I have found this a great way to expand my own thinking and to make my own ideas better. However, the organizational design also removes bureaucracy, the process by which ideas are vetted in most organizations. Hence, it is difficult for the organization to select any one idea over another. Therefore, it is imperative in this organizational design to have strong leaders because, again, leaders are practiced at the art of decision making and persuasion - the precise skills required to move an idea from concept to execution.

Finally, ideas are usually not strong enough to win on their own. Unless ideas are so self-evident that they are undeniable to a majority population, they will fall to the wayside without an organizational mechanism to support them.

So, what are the implications of this design? Here are some thoughts:

• Developing leaders is an organizational imperative. As you probably know from some of my previous posts, I believe that this is important and that most organizations don’t place enough emphasis on this. I also believe it is doubly important in this environment.
• Leaders will win over ideas every day. Or, perhaps ideas win because they have strong leaders who support them. Which leads to…
• There will be times when a leader with a bad idea wins over a good idea with no champion.

Leadership in Difficult Times

One of my readers from South Minneapolis (okay, it was my wife) sent me this audio clip from MPR discussing the leadership qualities required of our next President. The speaker highlights several great qualities of leaders. It’s well worth the listen. Her hypothesis is that leaders possess:

• The ability to motivate oneself in the face of adversity and to rise above it
• The ambition, desire to leave the world a better place
• The ability to leverage their own personal experiences to connect with others
  
  http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/22/midday1/

That’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed today's musings.

Monster Dash

Today I ran my first 5k race, the Monster Dash. It is billed as the largest Halloween race in the Upper Midwest. A few friends of mine ran the half marathon, but that was a little beyond my modest goals. I had two objectives in running the race today. First, to get my feet wet as I prepare for the Twin Cities Marathon next year. Second, to finish in under 30 minutes. I did both, finishing in 27:41 by my accounts. I'm still waiting for the official time. Here's what I learned by running the race today:

1. Run to open space. There are so many people massed together at the starting line that it's actually hard to run. I think one of the reasons my pace was so fast (at least for me) is that I was too impatient to run in the pack. I could also see myself tripping over other runners.
2. When not running with my iPod, cow bell is a great motivator. This is funny not only because it's cowbell, but also because I love the SNL skit with Christopher Walken and Will Farrell.
3. Pace is king. It's not how fast you run, but rather how you sustain yourself over the course of the race. I think the adrenalin kicked in today, along with my competitive nature, and I ran a pace that I know I couldn't sustain over a longer distance.

Thank you to Polly, Addie, Mary and Michael for supporting me on this endeavor. I had a blast running today. This goal is not possible without you.

Congratulations to Allison, Gina, Hilary and Jeri for running the half today.

Finally, this is my last sports post on this blog. I will be moving all of my personal posts to the blog Fourth and Goal, which can be found in my blog list in the right column of this page. I will continue to use this blog to post all of my business and tech writings.

The Power of Open Principles

Over the last several days, I have been seeking input on my approach to redesigning the Insignia website. I am basing our approach to the redesign on one core belief – that the employees and consumers of Insignia care deeply about the success of the brand and will lend their unique talents and perspective for the betterment of the brand. The events of the last couple of days have only solidified that view.

First of all, thank you to everyone who contacted me, publicly or privately, and offered me their perspective and support. In total, the number was small, but the impact was more far reaching than you can imagine. I encourage you to stay connected with the dialogue as I believe this is only the beginning. We are on a long journey.

Second, I’d like to thank Hanson, Inc., our digital agency, who took a huge leap with us today. I took the liberty of putting Hanson in front of people they had never met before and who's sole job was to provide input, critique and ask tough questions. They performed admirably. Embracing Open Principles is hard because first you have to make yourself vulnerable. This takes courage and trust. I think we have both now!

So, here’s what I’ve learned over the last three days:

• There are a lot of people who care about Insignia and our work on the website. They mostly came from unexpected places.
• Our vision is aggressive but necessary. Personally, I think this gets the most people excited while also making the most people nervous. With such an aggressive agenda, I become concerned with meeting expectations.
• Our culture will allow great things to happen. I'm convinced that this could not happen at most large companies.
• There is much to be done. I was impressed with the diversity of views. I was also impressed by the demand for a consumer electronics brand that would embrace the values of the community.
• The core issue, from a branding perspective down to technical implementation, is how transparent we make the relationship between Insignia and Best Buy. If we want to be transparent and authentic, which I think you have to be online, I don’t think we should try to hide this relationship.
• Based on the answer to the above question, what customer benefits are delivered on the Insignia site vs. Best Buy? For example, if Insignia is clearly a Best Buy brand, would we offer comparison shopping on the Insignia site or leave that to Best Buy and focus more on community and customer support at Insignia?

Given all of these learnings, here’s what I’d like your perspective on today. If Insignia is a brand that listens to its customers and openly embraces its community utilizing Open Principles, what is the best way for Insignia to signal that to its customers through its website?

That’s all for now. Thank you again and I look forward to continuing the journey.

Insignia Open Principles Test

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I am taking this opportunity to extend the open principles test to redesigning the Insignia website (http://www.insignia-products.com/). Insignia is a Best Buy Exclusive Brand that produces and sells TVs, MP3 players and various other consumer electronics in the US and Canada. We are in the process of redesigning our web site and are seeking input from those who have a point of view and passion around the Insignia and Best Buy brands. We believe that ownership and engagement from our customers and employees are the keys to our success. Therefore, I invite you to share your unique perspective as we set out on this journey. This is an experiment, so I don’t know what will work or what kind of feedback we will receive, but I do believe your voice will help us make a better product in the end. I also want to thank our digital agency for their openness in trying this experiment with us.

Here’s how to participate:

If you are a Best Buy corporate employee: On Wednesday, October 22nd, we invite you to join us in A5 Big Box to hear our digital agency present their Discovery findings and initial wireframes. The meeting is from 3:00 – 4:30 and you will need a Yammer account to participate (http://www.yammer.com/). Please sign up using your Best Buy e-mail address as it will be the only way for us to collect your feedback during the session.

If you are a Best Buy field employee: Go to BlueShirt nation to find this topic posted under General forums. Please leave your feedback there.

If you are an Insignia or Best Buy customer: Please leave your feedback directly here at this blog.

The Key Question we are addressing is how to make the Insignia web site more useful and relevant to our customers. What role should Insignia play in Best Buy's mission and how should that reflect on the web site?

Thanks in advance. I am looking forward to hearing what you all have to say.

Redskins 14 Browns 11

The Redskins squeaked out a win this week over the Browns and that's about all that can be said for this game today. As they say, a win is a win. Three things that can be taken away from today's game:

1. The Redskins beat a team at home that they should have beaten. The win is actually pretty big because it keeps them on pace with the Giants in the division and ahead of the pack in the wild card standings. After 7 weeks, the NFC playoff picture has yet to take hold with 9 teams posting winning records. 10 wins may not get you into the post-season in the NFC this year.
2. The Redskins stars made the plays. Clinton Portis was a horse running for 175 yards and 1 TD. That puts Portis on pace for 1,870 yards and 16 TDs, which would be a monster season. Moss wasn't quite as brilliant, but he made plays down the stretch when the Skins really needed him, including a nifty TD reception.
3. The kicking game was much improved, despite the missed FG. With the teams battling for field position for the first three quarters, improvement in this area was a critical component of victory. Zorn called the punting game "excellent" for perhaps the first time this season.

A few other observations:

1. Teams are adjusting to the Redskins offense and Coach Zorn's play calling. Offensive production and scoring opportunities are down while turnovers are up. Two downtrodden teams came into Fedex the last two weeks and found ways to get pressure on Campbell and to disrupt the Skins offensive flow. How the Skins and Coach Zorn adapt to defensive scheming will go a long way towards determining their fate this year.
2. My fantasy team is sunk. I took Braylon Edwards too high in the draft this year and am paying for his lack of production. I used to think it was his quarterback, but after listening to the game today, I know it's him. Edwards dropped at least 4 passes today.
3. I really like this Chris Horton guy. He seems to have a knack for the ball, plays hard and somehow seems to be in the right place a lot. Not bad for a 7th round draft pick.