All companies and entrepreneurs aspire to be innovative and responsive to customer needs. But how do you balance the seemingly endless customer wish list with the very real effects that those “extras” have on your bottom line?
In 1966, a year before the Summer of Love and two years before the original Woodstock, two gurus of the macrobiotic lifestyle, followers of the great George Ohsawa, opened a health food store called Erewhon. Erewhon is meant the title to be understood as the word “nowhere” backward even though the letters “h” and “w” are transposed. It came from the Samuel Butler book about a utopia. One of the fictional Erewhon’s tenets was that...
Santa Claus. Father Christmas. St Nicholas. Whatever you call him he is a symbol of Christmas for everyone, regardless of age. But for children he represents so much of the joy, vitality and energy of Christmas – because they believe.
Video streaming is just one example of a digital economy where competition is intensifying. Many so-called legacy companies are caught up in a battle with digital competitors, and so far, the born-digital companies have been eating their lunch. Walmart (and every other physical retail store, from Macy’s to Best Buy) is in a constant duel with Amazon, and banks and credit card companies are squaring off against PayPal and Apple Pay.
We all believe that our brand and business is unique, that no-one else could possibly do what we do, that we are the one and only. But is an obsession with uniqueness necessarily true, or even helpful for our business and brand?
