STRATEGY CENTRAL

One of the bloggers I check out regularly is David Armano over at Logic + Emotion.  Often a really good way of looking at things, maybe a little unexpected, but definitely will make you think.  Check out this diagram about the Stairway to Brand Heaven:

Interesting, don’t you think?  This is all about the way things work from the standpoint of brand value (whether you’re talking corporate or personal).  Want to build loyalty in your customer?  Building loyalty takes a lot of work.  Positive interactions are only the beginning.  Consistency and credibility are important steps along the way.  Authenticity and trust get you beyond credibility to the place where you’re actually building loyalty.

The truth?  Compromise on consistency or waste credibility on a half-hearted effort…and you take a few steps down the stairway.  Fudge a little on something or break trust even for an instant…and you may take a giant leap backwards and have to rebuild.  Want to build brand loyalty?  Where are you?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  As true as that is…and it is true…sometimes a well crafted image is pretty powerful too.  Check out this line from Hugh over at Gapingvoid:

Nothing like a massive line at the beginning of a long day!

Think you can please everyone?  Uhhhhh…no.  You can’t.  But you can choose who you are willing to offend.  Not only can you choose, but wisdom is in the choosing.  If you don’t choose, it still happens.  It  just won’t be you doing the choosing.  Want to know the heart of the issue?  The failure to choose almost always means that you’re choosing against the very people you hope to reach.

Thanks to Scott Hodge for the concept.

Too close.  Lakers pull it out!

One of my core assumptions about life is that there is no problem-free.  Every idea or "solution" comes with its own unique problem set.  You can’t choose problem-free.  All you can do is choose the set of problems you’d rather have.  So when I saw this quote over on Tom Peters’ blog…I knew I had to put it here!

"There is always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong."  H.L. Mencken

I don’t know about you, but it’s really bothered me that some have used alarmist headlines to mislead people about Willow’s direction.  Want the truth…from the horse’s mouth?  Here’s Bill Hybels’ take: Hybels’ Interview.

Thanks to Todd over at MMI for the tweet!

In case you’re wondering…C3PO is still in business.

Very powerful last night at Yorba Linda Friends. This painting was begun and finished while we sang. Very cool to watch.

I linked to a great interview that Lisa Haneberg did with Michael Kanazawa a couple weeks back.  Kanazawa is the co-author of Big Ideas to Big Results: Remake and Recharge Your Company, Fast. 

One chapter in… I can already tell this will be a perfect fit to the ideas of getting to there.  This could be huge!  I’ll keep you posted.

Want to read along?  You can order your copy RIGHT HERE.