Bullets from my airplane ride...

Read the November 2008 issue of Fast Company magazine on our flight from Phoenix to Dallas. Here's the things that caught my attention:

• Advertising. Sam Ewen, guerrilla marketer, says don't advertise to tell the consumer what to desire but rather advertise to cause the consumer to generate his or her own desire. Creative Mischief.
• Do you know where your lappy is? A laptop is stolen every 53 seconds. More than 12,000 laptops disappear weekly from U.S. Airports alone. According to the Computer Security Institute, the average large company lost almost $3.9 million last year to laptop and mobile-device thefts and another $4.5 million on the confidential and proprietary and confidential data stored in those machines. Computrace is now included in the motherboards of all major manufacturers' notebook computers (including Dell & Lenovo). They charge $99 a unit for a three-year contract (companies pay a much lower bulk rate). To Catch A Thief.
• Happy employees make companies money and change the world. According to Kenexa, turnover among managers who feel pride in their company is 21% lower than among those who don't. CEO Rudy Karsan says "When you are in a job that you enjoy and you're good at it, you're not just a better worker. You're a better spouse, a better parent, a better citizen." Kenexa's researchers show the stats: companies with higher employee satisfaction scores had 700% higher shareholder return. The Employee Whisperer.
• Speaking of fostering a great culture. "Our goal is to prepare students not just to solve problems, but to find problems worth working on," says George Kembel the D.school's executive director. Mission Critical.
• Bad powerpoint disaster. NASA determined that a root cause of space shuttle Columbia's crash was the Debris Assessment Team's Powerpoint predicting foam damage. It was so jammed with bullet points and shorthand that it was practically indecipherable. Presentation Pep Talk.

Comments

[Brad Huebert]

Must've been a good read for a plane ride. I usually scour the mags for just a partial tidbit of wisdom. I usually do find one or two gems, sometimes not.

My blog is www.presencevoicetouch.com, a website dedicated to helping people tune into God's presence, voice and (you guessed it) touch in their lives. It's all about being aware, isn't it?

Thanks for the reminder!

[tony sheng]

how funny - i wrote a post about things from that issue that popped out at me as well.

[david]

just a little irony...

my "lappy" was stolen right out of my home.

...while i was listening to you at Innovate!

:(

[Brian Howe]

Great Stuff...Fast Company is one of my favorite magazines...Loved the article on Ewen especially about how the next trend in marketing is honesty, go figure.