It’s pretty obvious that banks and others in the financial markets have taken many risks they either did not understand or – more likely – that they managed poorly. Unfortunately – and at the risk of being accused of a broad generalization – they suppressed a different kind of risk taking – aka creativity. Creativity in terms of new ways of thinking about their business, their customers, their way of looking at the world. Tim Brown of IDEO reminds us in this great talk that ‘adult behaviors’ get in the way of new ideas; adults worry too much about what everyone else will think. Financial services firms are perhaps the most ‘adult’ of all institutions. All work, no play. And so questions are not asked. And group-think dominates. And the cliff beckons…
Taking yourself too seriously has to be one of the best ways to end up looking ridiculous. I wonder if the lesson will be learned. Pass me the toys.
I hope you find it easier to read and navigate and hope you’ll find some of the new features useful. It is still a work in progress, so be sure to watch over the coming weeks as more features and improvements find their way on to the site (esp. those of you joining from an RSS reader!)
A very big thanks to Jof and Brainbakery for making this happen. They did a great job and I hope I’ll be working on more projects with them going forward.
Just trying to keep up with the ‘digital generation’…
I’ve just spent a bit of time going through the various suggestions you’ve all had for our new company name. I really appreciate the input, which also includes a few email entries as well for a couple people who were too shy to commit to their suggestions publicly.
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been one yet that has really stood out and elicited that “Yep, that’s the one!” moment… nonetheless the exercise has been very useful, not the least for giving us more confidence that we haven’t missed an obvious trick and underlining just how hard it is to come up with a good, original, meaningful name without degenerating into bullshit jargon bingo and/or having it not fit on a business card.
We haven’t closed the book yet (but will when the next milestone comes up in the next fortnight or so) so any last minute inspiration is still welcome. If however you are stumped, and want a new riddle to solve, we are trying to think up a punchy and pithy tagline that would work with Nauiokas Park to frame the venture and that plays on the double meaning of ‘Park’. Along the lines of:
A heartfelt thank you to the early entries into the ‘help-name-the-new-company-sweepstakes’! Not sure we have a winner yet but some great ideas and food for thought for sure. And my old friend Tres has definitely broken into the lead in the most ‘funny’ name category but unfortunately has been tripped up by the always nasty plausibility clause… (I feel for you man, I really do…)
Bet The Farm Investments LLP
Loaded Dice Investments LLP (A Risk Management Fund…)
Over/Under Investments
…although if it were up to me I might just go for Loaded Dice (without the Investments.) Amy?
Anyhow, still a week or so to get your suggestions in; I’ll send an other update next Friday.
I sometimes get asked why I decided to make a career change and – while I knew the reasons – until now I never had a concise and articulate answer. It’s about “singing and dancing while the music is being played.”
On yesterday’s announcements from Apple. Many hundreds and thousands of professional and amateur commentators I’m sure have already insightfully and accurately dissected Steve’s keynote and written complete and intelligent reviews of Apple’s new products. So I’m not going to bore you by trying to compete. Just two observations – admittedly first impressions, one which is somewhat tangential but still germane to some of the ideas I’ve been throwing around with respect to the entertainment industry (although I’ve been mainly focused on music and live events.)
The new Apple TV might just be as transformative for the movie business, as the iPod was for the music business. Very impressed. The rental model also – while not ideal – is probably a good compromise (at least in the short term): a good transition model to clear the way for future business models that are completely digitally native. I would have liked to have seen slightly longer time windows, in particular for the once started viewing – say 48 or 72 hours (instead of 24) but not a bad start. And being able to buy DVD’s with digital copies is also a good idea. (What would be fantastic would be a DVD exchange facility whereby you could exchange your old DVDs for new (HD if available) DVDs that include a digital copy, for say half-price. I think the studios would make lots of money as people would then be motivated to renew their entire DVD libraries at once, and as an added benefit, the old DVDs (collected in bulk) could be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.
Apple needs just one more piece of hardware – one more appliance – in order to kit out a 21st century digital home: something that combines the Apple TV, with a touchscreen (and iPod Touch GUI) and an amplifier. For anyone that has their home wired with speakers in each room, this appliance would allow you to access your iTunes music and play it through the speakers in each room.
Apple (AAPL) was down heavily yesterday with the rest of the market, but if my first gut feeling about Apple TV is right, it goes from being a very expensive stock to something worth considering once more (especially if this market sell-off knocks it even lower.) Thoughts appreciated. (Disclosure: I own a small number of Apple shares in my pension plan.)
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