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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday February 20,2020: Resourceful and Resilient
This week’s edition is late because I am writing this from Havana, Cuba, where I’ve had limited Internet access.
Yes, Americans can still visit Cuba in organized tours for educational and humanitarian purposes.
It’s been 60 years since the Communist revolution. During that time, hundreds of thousands of Cubans left the island–for the US, Europe, and other places. Many of those left family behind and couldn’t return to visit for decades, or at all.
Today, there is still extreme poverty on the island and many buildings are in severe disrepair. There are shortages of many basic commodities and salaries are extremely low. There are no boats in the harbor–since it’s too easy to sail a boat the 90 miles to the coast of Florida.
But there is also a great amount of restoration underway. Many historical buildings have been renovated, and other are in progress. The people are warm and friendly. The hotel is well-equipped and up-to-date, and tourism is a thriving industry (albeit with very few Americans these days). The music and arts are upbeat and exciting.
In spite of (or perhaps because of) the challenges they face, the Cuban people are extremely resourceful. Building materials are reused and repurposed. Classic American cars are kept in great running condition without access to replacement American parts.
Havana celebrated it’s 500th birthday last year. Things may be far from perfect here, but the Cuban people are both resourceful and resilient. Like the music–a little offbeat but always driving forward.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday February 13, 2020: Going Viral
Over 60,000 people have now been diagnosed with the corona virus that is spreading around the globe, with nearly 1400 deaths. New cases are reported by the thousands each day.
We don’t know yet how bad this epidemic will get. Quarantine has not yet stopped the spread, but quick identification and treatment may allow many, if not most, patients to recover.
Beyond the health crisis, the disruption to ordinary life is just starting to be felt. Millions of people throughout Asia are quarantined or told to stay home and not work. This is creating major disruptions to the supply chain–factories throughout Asia, Europe and North America will be impacted. Workers will not be able to do their jobs, get paid, or feed their families–if food is even available.
Yesterday, MWC (the Mobile World Congress conference), scheduled for later this month in Barcelona, was cancelled because of the virus. Corona virus is not a health threat in Spain, but MWC attracts 100,000 people, including mobile technology providers and wireless carriers from around the world. Asian exhibitors can’t get to the event; attendees were concerned about contagion; the organizers couldn’t guarantee that would not occur, so they opted for cancellation.
The economic impact of cancelled events, production, and travel is not even estimable at this point. But here’s what we do know:
- We are a global society. Regardless of political leanings, most countries are economically interdependent. We need to act in a manner that reflects this.
- We can’t underestimate the severity of global health crises. Viruses know no borders. Preventing infection and treating patients in China saves lives there and around the world, and protects the world economy.
- There must be contingency plans. Events can be cancelled or rescheduled, but supply chains may be seriously disrupted for months or years. The travel industry will likely be thrown into chaos. How will manufacturers and distributors operate in these conditions? What is Plan B? Is there one?
- We disregard existing preventive treatments at our peril. There is no vaccine yet for coronavirus, but there is for influenza–which kills thousands of people each year. There are vaccines for mumps, measles, and many other contagious diseases–yet many people choose not to get them. The science is clear: prevention is always more effective than treatment after-the-fact. The life you save may not even be your own, but that of someone whose medical condition makes them less able to fight off an infection.
Now’s the time to think ahead–while there’s still the ability for protective actions to go viral.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday February 6, 2020: Losing Count
This week the Democratic party held its caucuses in Iowa and the winner was……
Three days later, we still don’t really know. The new app that was supposed to streamline the process crashed and threw the whole process into turmoil.
This seems to have caught the Iowans totally by surprise. But having lived in Silicon Valley for 30 years, I find this disappointing but not shocking.
We love our technology. Many of us can’t imagine how we lived before Fedex, email, Smart Phones, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Instagram, etc. We have new medical devices that save lives and new products that bring us capabilities we never even considered just a few years ago.
But what we can’t ever forget is that all new technology has bugs. No matter how accomplished the developers, there are issues that don’t come out until the new technology is tested under real-world type conditions. The problem is too many times that testing occurs in the real world under stressful situations, rather than in lower risk testing environments.
The result? Something breaks. Sometimes that something is minor; other times it brings a primary caucus to its knees.
We’ve seen this happen so many times that we know this is the way things work. Yet too many times we still try to rush through a new tool to meet a key deadline. The higher risk the situation, the more necessary it is to thoroughly test before releasing the product or process into “the wild.”
Make sure you test well when it really counts. Caveat emptor.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday January 30, 2020: Shattered
The sports world was reeling on Sunday with the news that LA Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant was one of nine people killed in a helicopter crash just outside Los Angeles.
Sitting in a restaurant in Palm Springs, it seemed like all the air had been sucked out of not just the room, but all of Southern California.
Kobe, his daughter Gianna and the other passengers were on their way to a basketball game at a league Kobe had established.
The response has been stunning: sports teams, celebrities, and politicians have all praised Kobe, with NBA teams starting games by standing still for a 24 second violation, in honor of Kobe’s #24. Thousands of people have converged on the Staples Center in LA to mourn Kobe.
While Kobe’s death is certainly a loss, we have to remember that three other families are mourning the loss of loved ones, and this is just one of many aviation accidents that have occurred over the last year.
What’s frustrating about this particular situation is that the NTSB appears to have made recommendations to the FAA for safety improvements to helicopters after previous crashes–but these recommendations were ignored.
Maybe things will be different this time. The loss of a superstar athlete may bring enough attention to change the process. Let’s hope no more lives will be shattered like this.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com