Zane Safrit

Amazon's Stranglehold on Online Retail

via www.thenation.com

Huh.

• 1/3 of online shopping?

• 75% of online book sales?

• 61% of e-book sales?

• Sweetheart deals are very sweet if  0 state sales tax means anything.

• Jobs? To coin a phrase from Treasure of the Sierra Madre...[Jobs? Jobs?] We don't need no stinkin' [jobs].

Anecdotally, these stats seem inline with what I have seen before. Anecdotal, schmanecdotal, though. I like to see links to resources and research. ILSR...maybe a 2nd iteration of this chart with links to the original data would be a good iteration.

By nature, I tend to bristle at the big bad anonymous, impersonal, corporate behemoth beating up on the little guy. A chart like this makes me and my bald head bristly...

That being said, I have to admire what Jeff Bezos and his crew at Amazon have accomplished. They created and executed a business model that seems akin to a perpetual motion machine, a fusion-energy source, one that never stops. Dig it.

Who among Amazon's employees, stakeholders and yes, we its customers, are not wow, pulled into its miracle of easy shopping and cheap prices and cool goods. From one place, too!

That being said, I wonder if maybe Amazon's business model has not become like The Borg as seen in Star Trek: First Contact.  

The Borg use abduction and "assimilation" (forced cybernetic enhancement, connection to the hive mind) as a means of "achieving perfection".

Amazon uses hiring and "assimilation" (peer pressure coupled with missionary zeal well-funded and incentivized with rich bonuses, connection to the hive mind) as a means of "achieving perfection".

A stretch. But, I wonder if in the zeal of execution, in the pursuit of near-perfection, for their business model... Amazon has not lost sight of some of the more human aspects of their early days. Stories like this, The Real Price of Amazon's Free Shipping, makes many think, me included, that a disconnect has happened between conception and execution, particularly as you move away from the cool offices in Seattle to the warehouses in ...Allentown, PA.

It happens. People get disconnected from their loves and passions and in the rush to reach that next goal...they rationalize or deny.

See, here's the catch. Amazon's business model was based, is still based on disruption. Clearly, they have disrupted the sources of income for many businesses. And they have concentrated those sources into their revenue statement. But, what goes around always comes around. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Disrupt enough people's income and they find a way to disrupt yours.

I'm not as smart as Jeff Bezos and his team. They don't know me. But if I had a chance to talk with him...I'd say take a look at the human side of your business. Assimilation can only go so far, there's only so many people willing to be assimilated.

 

 

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, Baby

via www.youtube.com

No other sound is quite the same as your name...

'Specially when your name is all about the real thing, baby and your customers know you represent the real thing.

That's what your customers want. The real thing. And only you can deliver it.

So simple, really. So impossible to compete with.

Who competes with Apple? Johnny-Janey Come Lately...And who sings their song? No one.

Who else? Who else is authentic, produces a one of a kind product? Zappos. Ok. That definitely works.

What about Zane's Cycles? No connection except I interviewed its founder, Chris Zane, on my radio show. Listen here.

Cafe Paradiso. Yep. 7 days a week, they deliver the real thing.

Who else in your life delivers the real thing, baby? And how often do you sing their song?

Bottomline: Give your customers your real self, not a picture...in a frame...and then they're left singing your tune, cause it's their tune.

PS: Marvin and Tammi were the real thing, too. Listen to those two fine voices.

Are You Comfortable with the 8 Qualities of Remarkable Employees

8 Qualities of Remarkable Employees

Great employees follow processes. Remarkable employees find ways to make those processes even better, not only because they are expected to… but because they just can't help it.

 The post is short, crisp, concise. 8 qualities.  Read it.

But this last paragraph, describes the biggest challenge.

Are you comfortable working with peers, employees, direct reports, interns who...follow processes only long enough to find ways to make [those]  processes even better... because they just can't help it.

Judging from the low level of employee engagement in American businesses...the majority of company managers, team leaders, and executives are not comfortable with this attitude.

So. If you're wanting remarkable employees and a culture of remarkable success and growth, can you get comfortable with employees who  find ways to make [your]  processes even better... because they just can't help it

The Ultimate Competitive Advantage: Personal Connections

“If I’m in a city and I Twitter for a good vegan joint for dinner, I’ll get 200 responses, and I’ll answer and say thank you,” she said. “Those interactions create the environment and the community where something like this happens. All that connecting, all that talking, all that being an authentic human being with needs and a life, instead of a picture of a pop star on a billboard.”

via www.nytimes.com

Maybe, you are not a pop star. And your product is not whispered, tweeted, FB'd, YouTube'd a bazillion times a day.

Maybe...maybe you run a hardware store and...and you compete against a global big box that just landed on the abandoned outskirts of your town, on a vacant lot gift-wrapped with a tax abatement from the fawning members of your community's city council. They're not fawning over you, they're fawning over...the global big box.(No particular reason why this example came to mind...)

You don't need Twitter. Sure, it would be cool. What you need is what our local hardware store, Luckman's offers: a personal connection with every customer, a personal conversation from a knowledgeable helpful professional who cares about his customers, who cares about their needs, who treats them like he would like to be treated. His store is busy every day I visit, which is rare. And he treats everyone with the same patient, helpful, professional manner. Every time.

Everyone in town loves him. Loves the store. In all the years I've lived here I've only heard satisfied, happy, customers emerge from this store. And in small towns...companies with bad service just don't make it.  But  the stories survive for a long time.

 “Those interactions create the environment and the community where something like this happens. All that connecting, all that talking, all that being an authentic human being with needs and a life...worth living.

Personal connection. No one can compete with your. Whatever your personal connections can offer..., add that to whatever it is you do and no one can compete.

In our global economy, people can have just about anything. Any time. At any price. 5 or 6 copies, different colors and sizes. Still, they're all the same.

What they want is regular dose of those rare, unique, combination of skills and resources, perspectives and sensibilities, i.e., YOU. They want a personal connection with you.

Give it to 'em. No one else can.

Social media mutes coaches, takes fun away from game?

When asked to explain why he called then-Missouri coach Norm Stewart "Francis the Talking Mule," Oklahoma coach Billy Tubbs "apologized" thusly:

"I got Mr. Ed, the talking TV horse, mixed up with Francis the Talking Mule from the movies. I meant to say, 'mule,' because a mule is not a thoroughbred. A jackass is a thoroughbred, but a mule is a cross, I think, between a jackass and a horse. I think a mule is worse than a jackass."

Told he was likely to be fired during the season, little-known Southwest Minnesota State coach Pierre duCharme once had his team carry him to the bench in a casket.

John Chaney, as we all know by now, threatened to kill John Calipari. And Bob Knight did, in fact, murder a chair.

And Pete Carril, lit cigar in hand, once waddled over to James Taylor and impolitely asked the singer to "shut the [heck] up," since his sound check was interrupting Princeton's practice.

Those, my friends, were the days, the days when characters -- uninhibited, unafraid and unapologetic -- ruled the sidelines. They were a little kooky, a touch controversial and a lot entertaining, adored for their showmanship, yet still revered for their principles, interesting even if they could be, at times, alienating.

They made the game of college basketball just that: a game.

We never realized their days were numbered.

When, in 2006, Chaney quietly rasped Frank Sinatra's "excuse me while I disappear," it wasn't just the Temple coach who was headed off to retirement; he was taking his era into the sunset with him.

It was an era of fearless and unfiltered coaches, men who could be a little controversial without fear of recrimination or termination; men who could be a lot off color without worry of a social media firestorm.

"I couldn't wait to hear what was going to come out of Lefty [Driesell]'s mouth or see what was going to happen with the family feud between Wimp Sanderson and Sonny Smith," said former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl, who once memorably painted his chest orange in support of the Lady Vols basketball team. "You'd go to a banquet with Johnny Orr and you'd be bent over laughing, but every other word out of his mouth wasn't a household word. Can you do that today?"

And that's really the essence of it all.

It's not that there aren't characters in the game anymore. There are plenty. It's just that their personalities and their convictions have been muted.

The combination of high stakes and social media has robbed the game -- and maybe the world in general -- of some of its fun. There is too much to lose to risk offending anyone and too many Internet highways to burn the politically incorrect trespasser.

"If those guys then had social media monitoring their every move and every word, just think about that," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said.

Just think about that. That's blaming the messenger media, the means used to deliver the message. Literally.

Social media merely serves our purposes; a rorsach test, if you will, of our community's mores, values, prejudices, wondrous moments and inspiring leaders.

Blaming social media for taking the fun out of the game is like blaming phones for taking the fun out of dinner, delivering robocalls from political parties.

Blaming social media for 'taking the fun out of the game' is like blaming the post office for taking the fun out of mail, delivering spam to our mailbox spam.

Same thing for blaming email for spam.

Social media's a tool. Our tool. We use it, for our purposes, in our language.

Those salaries? Yeah, they went up because more people watch. More people watching means more advertising and sponsorship revenue.  Why do more people watch, well, because more people engage more, with more, all compliments to social media tools like ...Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc.

The real issue comes to this:

"I just think," Pearl said, "there are less people who can take a joke anymore."

Behind every joke is the truth.

Here's the Big Truth:

"I think sometimes people are just afraid," said Coppin State's Fang Mitchell, who proudly considers himself a Chaney disciple. "Jobs are so scarce. We are in a field that has [338] Division I jobs. To keep your job, it's easier to just be politically correct."

Ironic. As more people find more outlets for their opinion, we see more people being afraid to voice them.

"What's our game lost? It's the same as what our society has lost," Huggins said. "Think about it. It used to be that the leaders of the country said what was on their mind regardless of whether it was popular. Now we're all so guarded in everything we say. Nobody takes a stand. We've become a very vanilla society. Why would sports be any different?"

And there you have it.

And social media merely reflects that. Fairly transparently, too.

5 People You Should Read More Often

A friend of mine was in a bit of a transition in her life (for that matter who isn't and who doesn't have such a friend). After spending a few hours catching up, I told her I'd point her to some of my favorite people. These are people who are good writers, offer good advice, have helped many-many-many people.

Here they are.

Mark Silver

• Blog: http://www.heartofbusiness.com/blog/
• Favorite Recent Post: On The Surface or In the Depths. 
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/markheartofbiz

Deborah Shane:

• Blog: http://www.deborahshanetoolbox.com/
• Favorite Recent Post: What Exercise Can Teach You about Career Success
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/DeborahShane

Pam Slim:

• Blog: http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/pamela-slims-blog/
• Favorite Recent Post: How Blogging Changed My Life
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/PamSlim

* Jennifer Sertl

• Blog: She doesn't have one. When asked about it, she pointed me here:

• 4 Posts at Elephant Journal

• 4 Posts at Teacher Cast

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/jennifersertl

Jonathan Fields:

• Blog: http://www.jonathanfields.com/blog/
• Favorite Recent Post: Broken Open to Greatness: Transforming Tragedy to Triumph
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/jonathanfields

Enjoy. Stop by their sites, say hello, follow them on Twitter. Tell 'em I said 'hi'.