August 17, 2005
in london
I’m currently in London. I’m running around like crazy, so I’ve not had much time to blog. But this is what’s been on my radar screen lately:
1. Thanks to Sarah Blow for organising such a lovley Girl Geek Dinner last night. About 40 people came, and Stormhoek handed out complimentary wine.
2. Seth Godin has a new book out. His last, apparently. He prefers blogging as a medium for getting his ideas out there. I contributed a couple of drawings to the project. Seriously cool stuff.
I’ve found that most business books don’t get bought. Those that do, don’t get read. Those that do, make a difference, but only for those that read them. Every once in a while, a business book breaks through because organizations buy it by the truckoad. When a group buys 100 or 1,000 copies of a book, it gets talked about. It becomes a touchstone, something that people can refer to, use as a shorthand and take as a common foundation.
When I pitched Tom Peters, Malcolm Gladwell, Guy Kawasaki, April Armstrong, Julie Anixter, Marcia Hart and dozens of other big thinkers on contributing to a book that was designed to change the way organizations dealt with being remarkable, they all said yes. No hesitation, just yes.
3. As part of his marketing class, Robert Paterson got his students to all write 1,000 word essays about English Cut. They had to assume the voice of Thomas Mahon in the year 2008.
Here is the scenario for your last paper — 1,000 words please. We are going to explore the world of the small and the personal in the hope that in this case study, you will find some insight that will help you do the same.
Your task is to imagine that you are Tom Mahon of English Cut — the Tailoring Business supported by Hugh Mcleod of Gaping Void and Hughtrain fame. It is 2008 what happened? How did your new approach begin? What was the influence of Hugh. What happened that was differenr from the traditional way of doing this? What is is about the Long Tail that fits? Why did you not grow beyond a certain size? As you became more successful (How) what did others like you do — in other words what was the larger impact of others who made bespoke products. What were the challenges? What were the lessons for you and for others?
It was REALLY interesting reading their thoughts on the subject. Basically, their interpretation of the business model, why it’s shaped the way it is and how it’s developiong was totally spot on. Thanks, Everybody for doing such a great job. Impressive stuff.
Wish we had insightful marketing professors in my day who got us thinking about a future scenario. My training was good, but this is a heck of a great assignment.
Yeah, I thought Robert’s angle was pretty darn groovy, regardless of my own personal interest in the project.
I was a member of the class that did this assignment and I must say that Rob was a really cool professor. I learned more in this class than in any where I was memorizing stuff from a textbook. We learned not only about things that were happening right now, but also where we are heading.