There was a bunch of interesting content from the March edition of Fast Company Magazine. It was the annual "50 Most Innovative Companies" issue and below are the businesses and associated writing that stood out (doesn't discount the companies on the full list not noted here, just that I didn't read anything on them that was terribly new to me)...
#5 - Square: There was a fairly lengthy profile of founder Jack Dorsey done by Ellen McGirt. It's well written and interesting content on a fascinating guy (Dorsey also co-founded Twitter) and company doing incredibly well in the fortified barriers to entry financial services industry.
#12 - Southern New Hampshire University: Excellent feature piece done by Anya Kamenetz about online education offerings from the traditional not for profit university.
#13 - Jawbone: Interesting profile from Farhad Manjoo on the consumer electronics maker noted as "one of the hottest private companies in the world."
#19 - Airbnb: Another long piece, this one by Austin Carr, on the successful vacation (but, not exclusively) rental facilitation company. That description sure leaves something to be desired so fortunately the Carr story details well Airbnb and its design-centric focus.
#24 - Starbucks: Featured was an excellent look by Jon Gertner at the company and how its returned to success by focusing less on simple replication expansion and more on performance and innovation. Also of interest from the piece was mention of future growth into the area of health and wellness.
#29 - Red Bull Media House: Red Bull an interesting company in the unconventional way its grown in part through extreme sports affiliation and Teressa Iezzi details in this profile its extension of sports sponsorship to a content division.
#34 - Chipotle: Interesting profile by Danielle Sacks on the fast food company with detail beyond what I've seen about efforts around an organic, sustainable and humane food supply. Mention also made of a Chipotle YouTube video with now 6M views.
#41 - Kickstarter: Probably the shortest piece of those I've highlighted, but still an interesting one by Rachel Arndt on the platform being more and more heavily used for funding creative ventures (noted in the piece that 17 Sundance films used Kickstarter).
Showing posts with label Farhad Manjoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farhad Manjoo. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Fast Company Jul/Aug 2011 issue - Milo within eBay / Social Media ROI
Two pretty solid stories from the latest issue of Fast Company.
From writer Danielle Sacks was "How Jack Abraham Is Reinventing EBay" about the 25 year old who sold his online shopping site Milo to eBay for a reported $75m. Abraham comes across as a very smart guy with the idea of showing online the inventory of brick and mortar stores... known as cross-channel shopping. Whether Milo (now a division run by Abraham within eBay) takes off or not, it's a concept that makes sense.
The second story from this issue that stood out to me was "Does Social Media Have A Return On Investment?" by Farhad Manjoo. Idea put forth is around the extreme difficulty in quantifying the effectiveness of Social Media spend as part of a company's Marketing budget. I'm sure there's companies out there purporting to be able to measure that (either within their own firm or on behalf of clients), but Manjoo writes of how difficult it is to say the return on a dollar spent in Social Media. Result of this is many companies are simply taking a land grab approach and trying to accumulate Twitter followers and likes on Facebook.
I wrote about Social Media over a year ago now, but the one thing that's known is it's important. The second thing known about Social Media beyond this is... well, that's what people are trying to figure out.
From writer Danielle Sacks was "How Jack Abraham Is Reinventing EBay" about the 25 year old who sold his online shopping site Milo to eBay for a reported $75m. Abraham comes across as a very smart guy with the idea of showing online the inventory of brick and mortar stores... known as cross-channel shopping. Whether Milo (now a division run by Abraham within eBay) takes off or not, it's a concept that makes sense.
The second story from this issue that stood out to me was "Does Social Media Have A Return On Investment?" by Farhad Manjoo. Idea put forth is around the extreme difficulty in quantifying the effectiveness of Social Media spend as part of a company's Marketing budget. I'm sure there's companies out there purporting to be able to measure that (either within their own firm or on behalf of clients), but Manjoo writes of how difficult it is to say the return on a dollar spent in Social Media. Result of this is many companies are simply taking a land grab approach and trying to accumulate Twitter followers and likes on Facebook.
I wrote about Social Media over a year ago now, but the one thing that's known is it's important. The second thing known about Social Media beyond this is... well, that's what people are trying to figure out.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Fast Company Magazine - Apple, Method Products & mGive
Some interesting pieces from the latest issue of Fast Company Magazine.
Most prominent was the cover story "Invincible Apple: 10 Lessons From the Coolest Company Anywhere" by Farhad Manjoo. Lots of interesting things in list format from the company Manjoo notes as being now the largest technology company in the world...
1. "Go into your cave" - about the idea of having a focus on providing value as you perceive it... and not getting bogged down in what other's say should be provided.
2. "It's ok to be king" - To the first point, Apple is a company in which CEO Steve Jobs both sets and steers the course. Highly, highly centralized decisions... which is fine as long as it's working.
3. "Transcend orthodoxy" - Apple is oft criticized for being a "closed system" company (primarily in relation to things like their oversight of what gets into the App Store), but the counterpoint from Jobs is both that they're not closed off... just preserving the user experience they seek to provide. Sorta like point 2, this also closely relates to point 1 above.
4. "Just say no" - see point 1.
5. "Serve your customer. No, really" - Not just providing the aforementioned user experience (which is typically thought of in interaction with the product), but also the customer experience (like, what do you do when you need help/support). Example provided by Manjoo (that I can completely back up from first hand experience) is the value provided via the free Apple Store Genius Bar support help.
6. "Everything is marketing" - Crazy focused attention to deal from Apple around anything touching the consumer. Examples of these range from product consistencies in the ubiquitous white earbuds and Mac startup sound to marketing coordination around product launches.
7. "Kill the past" - Innovate and always move forward. The phrase "kill your little darlings" comes to mind for me here.
8. "Turn feedback into inspiration" - Like other items on this list, related to point 1 in that the company creates products and features on it's own terms and timetables according to what Apple thinks will inspire the masses. That said, this point is about taking consumer requests and using them as jumping off points for said product introductions on Apple terms.
9. "Don't invent, reinvent" - Closely related to the "innovate" idea from point 7, but rather an idea around taking ideas that may already exist (i.e. portable music players & cell phone PDAs) and completely changing the product category through a radical focus on user experience.
10. "Play by your own clock" - Again... point 1 above. Innovate and action from Apple based on what the company (specifically, Steve Jobs) views as the right product introductions at the right time. An enormously key point made by Manjoo here is around the status of Jobs as CEO. The stock and company have done well enough under his stewardship (especially now during his second CEO go-round) that he (and Apple as a whole by extension) have the latitude to act based on what he feels best... basically a free pass from the never-ending cost-cutting pressures that many public company CEOs seem to be reacting to.
Lots and lots of stuff writtten here about a fascinating company. Me thinks if one were to identify the "big rock" point from Manjoo, it would be that Apple both can and does operate in the manner it sees best to provide a great user experience to the customer... and have Apple as a company prosper as a result.
-----
Some other interesting (and shorter) mentions from this issue...
Fast Company writeup of one of three winners of the International Design Excellent Awards Best in Show prize... Method Products ultra-concentrated laundry detergent in pump application dispenser.
Brief piece "How mGive Is Making Donations Mobile" about the mobile giving application from 32 year old James Eberhard's company Mobile Accord... description of the company and mGive program here.
Most prominent was the cover story "Invincible Apple: 10 Lessons From the Coolest Company Anywhere" by Farhad Manjoo. Lots of interesting things in list format from the company Manjoo notes as being now the largest technology company in the world...
1. "Go into your cave" - about the idea of having a focus on providing value as you perceive it... and not getting bogged down in what other's say should be provided.
2. "It's ok to be king" - To the first point, Apple is a company in which CEO Steve Jobs both sets and steers the course. Highly, highly centralized decisions... which is fine as long as it's working.
3. "Transcend orthodoxy" - Apple is oft criticized for being a "closed system" company (primarily in relation to things like their oversight of what gets into the App Store), but the counterpoint from Jobs is both that they're not closed off... just preserving the user experience they seek to provide. Sorta like point 2, this also closely relates to point 1 above.
4. "Just say no" - see point 1.
5. "Serve your customer. No, really" - Not just providing the aforementioned user experience (which is typically thought of in interaction with the product), but also the customer experience (like, what do you do when you need help/support). Example provided by Manjoo (that I can completely back up from first hand experience) is the value provided via the free Apple Store Genius Bar support help.
6. "Everything is marketing" - Crazy focused attention to deal from Apple around anything touching the consumer. Examples of these range from product consistencies in the ubiquitous white earbuds and Mac startup sound to marketing coordination around product launches.
7. "Kill the past" - Innovate and always move forward. The phrase "kill your little darlings" comes to mind for me here.
8. "Turn feedback into inspiration" - Like other items on this list, related to point 1 in that the company creates products and features on it's own terms and timetables according to what Apple thinks will inspire the masses. That said, this point is about taking consumer requests and using them as jumping off points for said product introductions on Apple terms.
9. "Don't invent, reinvent" - Closely related to the "innovate" idea from point 7, but rather an idea around taking ideas that may already exist (i.e. portable music players & cell phone PDAs) and completely changing the product category through a radical focus on user experience.
10. "Play by your own clock" - Again... point 1 above. Innovate and action from Apple based on what the company (specifically, Steve Jobs) views as the right product introductions at the right time. An enormously key point made by Manjoo here is around the status of Jobs as CEO. The stock and company have done well enough under his stewardship (especially now during his second CEO go-round) that he (and Apple as a whole by extension) have the latitude to act based on what he feels best... basically a free pass from the never-ending cost-cutting pressures that many public company CEOs seem to be reacting to.
Lots and lots of stuff writtten here about a fascinating company. Me thinks if one were to identify the "big rock" point from Manjoo, it would be that Apple both can and does operate in the manner it sees best to provide a great user experience to the customer... and have Apple as a company prosper as a result.
-----
Some other interesting (and shorter) mentions from this issue...
Fast Company writeup of one of three winners of the International Design Excellent Awards Best in Show prize... Method Products ultra-concentrated laundry detergent in pump application dispenser.
Brief piece "How mGive Is Making Donations Mobile" about the mobile giving application from 32 year old James Eberhard's company Mobile Accord... description of the company and mGive program here.
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