Sunday, August 10, 2014

Whale Shark

Catch of the Day: Whale Shark


A fisherman transports a dead whale shark after it was caught in fishermen's net, in Yangzhi county, Fujian province, August 1, 2014. REUTERS-Stringer

A fisherman transports a dead whale shark after it was caught in fishermen's net, in Yangzhi county, Fujian province, August 1, 2014. 
REUTERS/Stringer




Sunday, January 13, 2013

Steve Jobs on Marketing - Core Values


Passive marketing makes very little money.  You need to light the fire to get heat....






Uploaded on May 16, 2011

 
Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 after a 12-year absence from the company he had founded. Apple was close to bankruptcy at the time. Over the next decade Jobs not only revitalized the company, but turned it into one of the most important brands of our time.

In those first months when the media was writing off the company as irrelevant and Apple employees/investors were not sure of the future, Jobs held an informal staff meeting.

What he told his employees at the time rings as true today as it did then:

"Marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. It's a very noisy world. We' re not going to get a chance for people to remember a lot about us. No company is. So we have to be really clear about what they want them to know about us. Our customers want to know what we stand for. What we're about is not making boxes for people to get their jobs done. Although we do that very well. Apple is about more than that. We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. That's what we believe."

Apple, Think Different (1997)

Friday, December 28, 2012

Steve Jobs rare footage conducting a presentation on 1980 (Insanely Great) - YouTube



Uploaded on Dec 11, 2011

 
Watch vintage Steve Jobs footage on Apple. This is a rare 22 minute presentation given by Steve Jobs on 1980. This video was gifted to Computer History Museum by Regis McKenna and can be found on their online exhibit about Steve Jobs here: http://www.computerhistory.org/highlights/stevejobs/


Steve Jobs rare footage conducting a presentation on 1980 (Insanely Great) - YouTube

Steve Jobs on Marketing - Core Values


Uploaded on Oct 6, 2011

 
Steve Jobs on fundamentals of Marketing, the Apple brand and an unaired version of the "Think Different" TV commercial, which featured Steve Jobs as the narrator. (1997)
  • Category

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    Standard YouTube License


Steve Jobs on Marketing - YouTube

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yefGOif2WU





Thursday, September 20, 2012

Evolutionary Dr Pepper ad spurs religious kerfuffle - Life Inc.

 

 Controversy is good business:

Evolutionary Dr Pepper ad spurs religious kerfuffle

Dr Pepper


This ad has created an online uproar.

Dr Pepper marched directly into controversy a week ago when it launched its “March of Progress” ad campaign. And the uproar has not abated.


On Sept. 13, the soft drink maker posted to its Facebook wall an ad using the classic “March of Progress” image tweaked to promote the “evolution of flavor.”

The whimsical ad showed a chimpanzee dragging his knuckles, followed by a semi-erect hominid reaching for a Dr Pepper, followed by a fully upright man walking and gulping a Dr Pepper.

The images are captioned “Pre-Pepper,” “Pepper Discovery,” and “Post-Pepper” respectively.

Sounds harmless. Even banal. But about 7,000 comment and nearly 33,000 likes later, the ad is still provoking reaction by creationists who say it promotes the theory of evolution.

Some are even threatening to boycott Dr Pepper. That in turn has stoked evolutionists to make counter comments. Then there's folks jumping on the pig pile just for laughs.

After all, we are talking about a soda pop ad, right?

  
The debate also blew up on popular link-sharing site Reddit, whose users flooded the thread to mock the outrage and post parody comment, further inflaming the debate and spreading the conversation ...

 Dr Pepper has posted over 450 images to its Facebook wall since 2009.  Most garnered a few hundred comments... proving:

 Controversy is good business


Read More:
Evolutionary Dr Pepper ad spurs religious kerfuffle - Life Inc.


 Link:  http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2012/09/20/13990802-evolutionary-dr-pepper-ad-spurs-religious-kerfuffle?lite

 




Evolutionary Dr Pepper ad spurs religious kerfuffle - Life Inc.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Richard Branson - Business Insider


Richard Branson founded Virgin in 1970 at the age of 20, and he hasn’t looked back.

He’s the only entrepreneur to have built eight separate billion-dollar companies in eight different industries — and he did it all without a degree in business.

"Had I pursued my education long enough to learn all the conventional dos and don'ts of starting a business I often wonder how different my life and career might have been," he writes in his new book,

Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School.


1. Don't do it if you don't enjoy it.

Running a business takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (and caffeine). But at the end of the day, you should be building something you will be proud of.

Branson says, "When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn't set out to build a business empire ... For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that's going to make a real difference to other people's lives."

2. Be visible


Sir Freddie Laker, a British airline “tycoon.”

“Make sure you appear on the front page and not the back pages,” said Laker. “You are going to have to get out there and sell yourself. Make a fool of yourself, whatever it takes. Otherwise you won’t survive”.


3. Choose a unique name for your brand



4. You can't run a business without taking risks.



5. The first impression is everything. So is the second.


Branson thinks of one of his favorite sayings when advising about taking business risks: “‘The brave may not live forever—but the cautious do not live at all!’”

Every business involves risks. Be prepared to get knocked down, says Branson, but success rarely comes from playing it safe. You may fail, but Branson also dares to point out that "there's no such thing as a total failure."


6. Perfection is unattainable.



7. The customer is always right, most of the time.



8. Define your brand.



9. Explore uncharted territory.



10. Beware the "us vs. them" environment.


The workplace should be one in which the boss and his or her employees communicate well and work together toward the same goal. “If employees aren’t associating themselves with their company by using ‘we’, it is a sign that people up and down the chain of command aren’t communicating,” says Branson.

If you think there might be discrepancies or tension between employees and management, Branson advises to check with the middle management first to try to uncover the source of the problem and address it head-on.


11. Build a corporate comfort zone.



Employees must feel free and encouraged to openly express themselves without rigid confines so they can do better work and make good, impactful decisions.

"This may sound like a truism," begins Branson, "But it has to be said: It takes an engaged, motivated and committed workforce to deliver a first-class product or service and build a successful, sustainable enterprise."


12. Not everyone is suited to be CEO.


A manager needs to be someone who “brings out the best in people,” someone who communicates well with others and helps an employee learn from a mistake instead of criticizing them for it.



13. Seek a second opinion. Seek a third.


Branson says you must learn to be a good listener in order to succeed, and that means bouncing “every idea you have off numerous people before finally saying, ‘We’ll give this one a miss,’ or ‘Let’s do it.’”

That means being thorough and deliberate before executing any decisions. In business, seeking a variety of opinions "can save you a lot of time and money," says Branson. "Don't tell people about others' suggestions until you've heard what they have to say. In the end you may decide that the best advice is to walk away—and later find out it was the very best solution."

14. Cut ties without burning bridges.


Business ventures with another person, be it a friend or a partner, don’t always work out. If this is the case, successful entrepreneurs know when to part ways.

But just because you decide to go in another direction doesn’t mean things have to end badly, especially with a friend, says Branson. Handle any problems quickly and head-on, and end the relationship as amicably as possible.

15. Pick up the phone.


great to be tech-savvy, but don’t text or email when you should be calling. "The quality of business communications has become poorer in recent years as people avoid phone calls and face-to-face meetings, I can only assume, in some misguided quest for efficiency," Branson says.

Problems are more difficult to solve by text or email, and “there is nothing efficient about allowing a small problem to escalate,” says Branson, when it could have been easily addressed with a phone call.

16. Change shouldn't be feared, but it should be managed.


“Companies aren’t future-proof,” says Branson, and nothing lasts forever. An entrepreneur should be prepared to adapt, and avoid being nostalgic about the company itself.

"Sometimes you have to take your company in a new direction because circumstances and opportunities have changed." If this is the case, Branson advises that you should "find ways to inspire all employees to think like entrepreneurs ... so the more responsibility you give people the better they will perform."

17. When it comes to making mistakes, bounce back, don’t fall down.


Your decision will not always be the best decision. Everyone makes mistakes, but the best thing you can do in the face of a mistake is own up to it.

Honesty isn’t just the best policy, it’s the only policy, notes Branson. When a mistake is made, don’t let it consume you. Uncover the problem and get to work fixing it.


18. Be a leader, not a boss.


Branson sees the classic image of “the boss” as an anachronism. Being bossy is not a desirable trait in a manager, he says. A boss orders while a leader organizes.

"Perhaps, therefore, it is odd that if there is any one phrase that is guaranteed to set me off it's when someone says to me, 'Okay, fine. You're the boss!'" says Branson. "What irks me is that in 90 percent of such instances what that person is really saying is 'Okay, then, I don't agree with you but I'll roll over and do it because you're telling me to. But if it doesn't work out I'll be the first to remind everyone that it wasn't my idea.'"

A good corporate leader is someone who doesn't just execute his or her own ideas, but also inspires others to come forth with their own.








18 Tips For Success From Richard Branson - Business Insider

Source: "Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/18-tips-for-success-from-richard-branson-2012-9?op=1#ixzz26rh8ZEcB


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Contemplate this:

“The secret to inner peace and lasting happiness is kindness—not random acts of kindness or simply being nice, but rather, kindness as a way of life.” 
- Michael Chase


“Ample sleep needs to be a priority in your life, not just for a high beauty quotient but to ensure basic health, particularly as you get older.” 
- Robert Tornambe, M.D.

“Without the illness I would never have been forced to re-evaluate my life and my career. I know if I had not had cancer, I would not have won the Tour de France.”
--Lance Armstrong

‎"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins; not through strength, but through persistence."
Buddha

Thought for the day: You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying over the future. ~ unknown

‎"Nothing limits achievement like small thinking; nothing expands possibilities like unleashed imagination." 
- William Arthur Ward

‎"Be kind to each other. It is better to commit faults with gentleness than to work miracles with unkindness." 
— Mother Teresa




Twitter in Plain English - YouTube

Twitter in Plain English - YouTube: ""

'via Blog this'

Blogs in Plain English - YouTube

Blogs in Plain English - YouTube: ""

'via Blog this'

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Beginner's Mind

Sit down before facts like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion.  Follow humbly whatever and to whatever abyss nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.
- T.H. Huxley

Friday, December 3, 2010

FORA.tv - Danny Goldberg: Bumping Into Geniuses

FORA.tv - Danny Goldberg: Bumping Into Geniuses

Danny Goldberg is the President of Gold Village Entertainment (GVE) and has worked in the music business as a personal manager, record company President, public relations man and journalist since the late 1960s. From 1983-1992, Goldberg was the founder and President of Gold Mountain Entertainment, a personal management firm whose clients included Nirvana, Hole, Sonic Youth, The Beastie Boys, Bonnie Raitt, The Allman Brothers, and Rickie Lee Jones.