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Filed under: innovation, marketing, online media | Tags: auctions, Berlitz, certificates of deposit, communities, corporate bonds, FDIC-insured, medium-term note, preferred stock, senior note
Yeah, I’m happy. We did it again. Even in a tough funding environment, the auction process that we have been using primarily for certificates of deposits has now been a quite successful pricing and funding mechanism for the corporate bonds and preferred stock offerings we have recently completed here at Zions Direct. The cool thing is, as I discussed before, that customers have the power to pick (as a group) what the yield/price should be. For example, our first medium-term note auction had a coupon of 5%, and our bidding community said, in effect, “We would actually be willing to take this at 4.95% (or lower)”—so that’s where it ended up priced.
And the last auction had a coupon of 5.65% and bidders thought collectively, for whatever reason, that they should get more this time for this security, so it ended at 6.35%.
The point of all this is that the customer-led process works. This is similar to the shift we are seeing throughout the online world. More than ever, customers are able choose what to pay, and it is no longer sellers, in our case banks, that are choosing what the price should be (this differs from the bank auction or aggregation sites, which keeps the power with the banks). It creates a more efficient marketplace and both the sellers and the buying community get to reap the rewards of this efficiency (which has other advantages, but I have talked too much already about my company).
So, yeah, I’m excited. This is a big reason why I chose to accept this job; I get to help lead the way into the future of banking—a future that resonates with the consumer-driven, web-enabled models that have disrupted nearly every other industry.
So tomorrow, less bragging about us—but today I am excited. As such, I have included a gift to you. It is one of my favorite ads, and it perfectly fits with the benefits of the product offered. Enjoy.
Disclosure:
You may see that I like Zions Direct Auctions. I also work in marketing on that product, which means I may be a bit biased (but it also means I do something that I believe in).
Filed under: community, marketing | Tags: Adidas, communities, Good to Great, hedgehog principle, Jim Collins, London, marketing, Quiet Innovations, Runners Need, running, service innovation
Are you an overpronator, a neutral runner or a supinator? Yeah, I don’t know either.
And if you stepped into one of the handful of Runners Need stores, you would find out that the employees there wouldn’t know either; well not at first. When listing their locations, they include the following statement:
*Customers please note: So that we can provide the high level of service that we pride ourselves on, a shoe fitting (including gait analysis assessment) will usually take between 15 and 30 minutes. So please leave yourself plenty of time for your fitting, especially at the end of the day.
This gait analysis typically includes you, on a treadmill, getting videotaped, and having an expert sit down and review the video in detail with you to show you what shoe is best for you. They also have some pretty neat promotions. Like tomorrow, they are holding Adidas Footscan Day, which includes a computerized scan of your run.
Their approach is simple. They sell to runners. If you want to have the best gear for running, whether you are just starting, or you are training for a marathon, this is the place to go. They let you know when it is time to get new shoes. They offer expert before, during, and after your purchase; and this is real expert advice, not just information stolen and rehashed from other websites.
If you want cheap, fashionable, running-type shoes, don’t go here. I was a bit overwhelmed when I visited there because as I walked in, I quickly realized they were serious about running—and I wasn’t quite ready to commit. They weren’t for me (though now, 16 lbs later, I think I should probably head back). That’s a good thing; they don’t want everyone—they just want a community of people who, in turn, want them. And then the members of this community tell other members of the running community that they need to also go there. And so on. Not because Runners Need says in their brand guide that they are a runner’s store; it’s because they simply are. They have become an integral part of the runners’ social fabric.
They don’t compromise for looks or fads. They are hedgehogs, and they do their one thing very well. And their customers know it and show their appreciation with their wallets.
The really innovative companies are often very good at not doing too much.
Filed under: community, innovation, leadership, online media, politics | Tags: Alexander Hamilton, blogging, Christopher Long, communication, critical mass, Firefox, Gandhi, iTunes, NYPD, Patrick Pogan, Ron Chernow, Tienanmen Square, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube
I feel bad for Patrick Pogan. Three weeks on the job as a third-generation member of NYPD and he makes a mistake that he will feel the brunt of for some time. According to Newsday, during Critical Mass, Pogan stopped a cyclist, Christopher Long, and arrested him for:
… attempted assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
Long, court papers said, wove his bicycle in and out of the center lane on Seventh Avenue, disrupting traffic, then drove right into Pogan’s body.
[...]
Officer Pogan also said he suffered cuts on his forearms as he fell to the ground.
Perhaps in attempt to stymie Critical Mass, and definitely in an effort to restrain this rider, Pogan made a split-second decision; a split-second decision that landed Long in prison jail but soon after came to bite Pogan and the NYPD after more information surfaced. And, with the wonders of YouTube, you can see for yourself a different viewpoint:
Pogan was able to stop the cyclist, but can he stop the spread of information in a well-connected world? Doing a quick search on Google News reveals with polyglot illumination that this is proving to be quite difficult, whether in Dutch;
De NYPD heeft agent Patrick Pogan op non-actief gesteld. De 22-jarige New Yorkse agent is degene die vrijdag op Times Square tijdens een Critical Mass ride een van de deelnemers een forse bodycheck gaf. Pogan heeft zijn penning en pistool moeten inleveren, en moet bureaudienst doen zolang de NYPD een intern onderzoek doet naar het incident. De fietser blijkt ene Christopher Long te zijn. Hij heeft nog niet gereageerd, maar zijn advocaat zegt dat het filmpje ‘voor zich spreekt’.
Un policier new-yorkais se retrouve dans l’eau chaude en raison d’une vidéo publiée sur YouTube le montrant alors qu’il plaque violemment un cycliste vers la chaîne de trottoir afin de l’interpeller.
La vidéo a été tournée vendredi dernier par un touriste lors de l’événement Critical Mass, une randonnée de vélos organisée chaque mois dont l’objectif est de célébrer et de promouvoir les droits des cyclistes.
A New York City police officer was stripped of his gun and badge on Monday after an amateur video surfaced on the Internet showing him pushing a bicyclist to the ground in Times Square during a group ride on Friday evening.
More and more organizations, governments, and individuals who used to be in power are facing more and more the reality that there has never been a time that the common people have held as much power. And that power to communicate is increasingly becoming more difficult to stop.
Perhaps those in power need to take some old advice. Ron Chernow recorded in his biography of Alexander Hamilton (p 340) Hamilton’s words of advice that members of the newly formed Coast Guard should
always keep in mind that their countrymen are free men and as such are impatient of everything that bears the least mark of a domineering spirit. [You] will therefore refrain . . . from whatever has the semblance of haughtiness, rudeness, or insult.
This “domineering spirit” is increasingly finding itself of odds with the freedom of informational movement. Communication through the press was the linchpin of Gandhi’s movement, this free press drastically damaged the perception of China to the West with the indelible images of Tienanmen Square, and over two centuries ago, through pamphlets and protests the seeds were sown for revolution in the United States.
And today, that power is more than ever in the hands of the common person, and it is more than just a freedom to communicate. It is a power to activate, such as James Karl Buck’s well known Twittering story. It is the power to create, such as seen with Wikipedia, and blogs, and YouTube. It is the power to chose, such as with the auctions product I work with, or with iTunes, or Firefox. Ultimately, it is the power to have a true voice in politics, in consumption, and how you live your life.
Now, try and see if you can stop that.
Disclosure:
You may see that I like Zions Direct Auctions. I also work in marketing on that product, which means I may be a bit biased (but it also means I do something that I believe in).
Filed under: community, leadership, online media, politics | Tags: Animaniacs, Apple, Austin, Bad Idea, blogging, Dirk Diggler, Electronic Privacy Information Center, First Amendment, Good Idea, Human Race, iPod, Larry Godwin, Lillie Coney, Medtronic, Melbourne, Memphis Police Department, MPD Enforcer, Mr Skullhead, Nike, public relations, publicity, Willie Herenton
Mr Skullhead was one of the greatest characters on Animaniacs, and, in addition to his brilliant Hamlet performance, it was his Good Idea, Bad Idea shorts that were among the more brilliant of the show.
Whistling is just one of the many things that you can do well or very poorly. Take public relations. You can do what Nike has done with their Human Race campaign (from the Herald Sun):
On August 31, one million people will run for charity. Twenty-five cities will hold a 10km run – including Los Angeles, New York, London, Madrid, Paris, Istanbul, Shanghai, Sao Paulo and Vancouver. Each race will start on the same day, with the first starting in Taipei and the last in LA.
This is a race that is quite simply cool. Not only can you participate in these selected cities, but you can even race on your home street in unselected Boise, Idaho—if you have the proper gear. This effort will build Nike’s & Apple iPod “+” brand, by association and by sales, already culminating into a movement that makes even participating cities feel simply honored to be graced with Nike’s presence.
Or you can be like the Memphis Police Department that is trying to use coercive powers to go after a blog site that has been critical of the internal practices and policies of the department. Of course, this is based on just what I read, and I am sure there is another side. Even so, it is unfortunate for MPD that it appears in the public’s eye (through traditional and nontraditional media) that these officers are happy to protect citizen’s rights, as long as the expression of these freedoms don’t make them look bad. As noted in the previously referenced article:
‘Dirk Diggler’ [...] (the collective pseudonym of the bloggers who write on the site) has posted copies of the subpoena sent to AOL that seeks any and all identifying information for the blogger in question. In another blog post, Dirk Diggler wrote, ‘It pains us to believe that we live in America and a Director of Police Services can use his position (and possibly tax payers dollars) to launch a personal vendetta against this site and the 1st Amendment.’
[...]
If the case proceeds, it seems unlikely that the MPD will be very successful in unearthing the information it wants. In 2005, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s decision requiring an ISP to turn over the identity of an anonymous blogger who was heavily critical of local politicians.
[...]
Free speech advocates believe that the same principles apply to this case. ‘You can complain about the government, and you should be able to do that without fear of retaliation or threatening actions on the part of the people in these positions,’ Electronic Privacy Information Center associate director Lillie Coney told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. ‘I guess they’ve kind of annoyed them at some level, but you really don’t want to see law enforcement or government resources spent in this way.’
You’d hope that the police department isn’t simply annoyed and trying to silence any dissidents; if this is their approach, that’s really just a bad idea. The government officials are, of course, insisting that that is not the case, as noted on a local site:
Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton said today there are ’serious issues’ behind police Director Larry Godwin’s legal quest to uncover the identities behind a blog critical of the police department.
‘There’s no attempt to try to squash, you know, whistleblowers or that kind of thing,’ the mayor said in response to reporters’ questions during an event at Medtronic. ‘There’s some serious issues here that I think will surface as it moves forward.’
What these serious issues are, it is unclear. Until they come forward, the message communicated again and again is likely a reaffirmation in many minds about the abusive powers of the local officials. Instead of trying to create a groundswell of support (as seen with Nike), they are creating a barrier of negative sentiment that they will have to break through.
Filed under: community | Tags: anecdote, critical mass, Days of '47, fireworks, Google, iPhone, parade, Pioneer Day, rodeo, Salt Lake, search engine optimization, SEO, Sly Dial, The Dark Knight
The missus (that’s what she said to call her) just took me to my first “real” rodeo. Considering that I grew up on a farm and she in a subdivision, it’s a bit ironic, I know. Now she wants a horse. We live in an apartment.
While walking home, we noticed a lady laying out a tarp and some chairs in front of our place. She was first in line. Not for an iPhone; not for The Dark Knight; she was in line for a parade that was to start in two days. Never living in Utah before, I had no idea that Pioneer Day (look it up) was such a big event. She wanted to be in the best place when this thing started.
Last night, we happened to be driving downtown on our way home when all these fireworks exploded around us. Again, Pioneer Day—had no idea. We were right next to the show at the precise moment that it was most exciting.
Two days ago, I made a brief comment about Sly Dial in a posting. It just so happened that, for a brief moment, that posting moved me to the number spot on Google when putting in the term “Sly Dial”. Take a look at my blog visitor stats as a result:
Sometimes you can plan it (but, you’re not likely the only one), sometimes it just happens. I was going to talk about trying to determine that when the next big thing is going to come, but I think that’s crazy talk. Anecdote has some great thoughts on this:
When getting yourself free in basketball, say on a fast break, the good player creates a range of possibilities rather than running to a single point where they think the basketball is going to be. They help create a pattern which takes account of the weak signal but creating possibilities which are resilient to a range of outcomes.
Though hard to pick the next “big thing”, it is possible to embrace a variety of emerging trends (that make sense for your movement, whatever it is), and when one of these reach critical mass, you’ll be there: right place, right time.
Filed under: marketing | Tags: Boing Boing, Chief Awesome Officer, Compliance Girl, disc golf, Rice, Seth Godin, Steven Sharp, The Curious Savage, Twitter
Against a panoramic backdrop of mountains and cityscape, I was inches away from moving to the championship. It was my first “real” disc golf experience, and I was paired in the semifinals against the Chief Awesome Officer’s omnific and barmy younger brother. Granted, Steven Sharp, the host, sponsor, and golf disc “advanced master” (yes, that Steven Sharp) of the tournament was in our way. Regardless, great heaps of pride were at stake with this pairing. Unfortunately, those inches were unkind to me, as my disc crashed against the basket and on to the conference room’s carpeted floor. The missed throw gave the Bohemian bachelor new life as he moved to defeat me, adding one more boast against his married counterparts.
The disc putting tournament was a free gift from Mr. Sharp to the top floor inhabitants of the Zions building downtown. I have always been intrigued by Steven’s disc golf stories, but now I really have a desire to participate.
If you follow me on Twitter, you may remember my ambiguous reference to The Curious Savage, a play that I had the pleasure to watch as a result of some free tickets from a neighbor in our building. While there, I noticed our neighborly Canadian couple were also enjoying the performance. During intermission, they sought out my wife and me to share with us their exuberance, during which they jocularly remarked that they thought the tickets they had also received were a “marketing trick”, because now they would have to come to another play. That got me thinking:
Hmmm, a marketing trick. Place that in the memory bank; I am always on the lookout for more sneaky tactics.
Actually, I’ve been thinking about how effective the Curious Savage and disc golf free trials were for different reasons. You see, the part about free giveaways doesn’t have the best application to my work, since we primarily sell fixed income securities by way of a free service (Zions Direct Auctions). What is insightful is the simple idea to attract the right people, at the right time, and then give them a reason to listen (maybe with a freebie, maybe with something else). And when they listen: then tell them something noteworthy so that they want to learn more and share it with others (if they are part of the 1% that are the sharing type of people).
Now that you’re listening, here’s the problem. I don’t have anything particularly noteworthy to say. Sorry. But I will give you some reasons to listen until the time is right and I do have something. But, in the meantime, you can view this old rice ad I came across yesterday. The pout is priceless. Compliance Girl ordered the booklet, so we’ll see if we get it.
Disclosure:
You may see that I like Zions Direct Auctions. I also work in marketing on that product, which means I may be a bit biased (but it also means I do something that I believe in).
Filed under: innovation, politics | Tags: Chief Awesome Officer, Doom, Ender's Game, Gary Larson, Halo, innovation, Pinger, Raytheon, Slate.com, Sly Dial, Super Mario World, thagomizer, The Far Side, Universal Control System, video game
When they haven’t annoyed me with some inane, narrow-visioned opinion, I have been known to enjoy reading Slate. Today they brought together Ender’s Game and The Far Side, which is more concerning than enjoyable—but nevertheless intriguing. The article relates:
The guy in the knit shirt leans back in his leather chair, his hand wrapped around the joystick. On the console display, two plane-shaped icons show the available ammo. As the target vehicle crosses his screen, he squeezes the red button. The car vanishes in a fireball.
[...]
But this is no game. This is the real thing. It’s called the Universal Control System. It directs aerial military drones. Raytheon, a high-tech defense contractor, exhibited the system last week at an air show in Britain. It looks and feels like a video game. But it kills real people.
[...]
If you’ve seen combat in the flesh, you know what the fireball on the screen means to the people in the car. But to a teenager raised on Doom and Halo, it looks like just another score. He can’t feel or smell the explosion. He isn’t even there. The eeriest thing in the demo video is the total silence that accompanies the car’s destruction. The only sound that follows is the pilot’s triumphant verdict: “Excellent job.” It’s like something you’d read on the screen after getting a high score at an arcade.
If you can’t see the connection with Ender’s Game, then either you haven’t read it (so I don’t want to ruin it for you), or you have read it and you just don’t get it (then you should read it again or get a friend to condescendingly explain it to you).
The Far Side connection was with a comic I once saw that featured a geeky teenage boy (I guess that would be a normal Far Side kid) that was on the ground playing Super Mario World. During his play, his parents gleefully daydreamed about his lustrous future as a video gamer. I was trying to find an example of the comic strip, when I ran across the following Gary Larson request:
So, in a nutshell (probably an unfortunate choice of words for me), I only ask that this respect be returned, and the way for anyone to do that is to please, please refrain from putting The Far Side out on the Internet. These cartoons are my “children,” of sorts, and like a parent, I’m concerned about where they go at night without telling me. And, seeing them at someone’s web site is like getting the call at 2:00 a.m. that goes, “Uh, Dad, you’re not going to like this much, but guess where I am.
So, instead I will give you a lovely picture of a thagomizer.
To very different worlds colliding in a sobering look into the future of warfare. While it may be quite disturbing to think of wars being fought in a dehumanized, video game environment, it lends to the increasingly prevalent feeling that more and more “the future” is happening right now.
The second thought, not related to the first except that I also read about it this morning, is about Sly Dial. Here is the concept in summary. You want to call someone, but you only want to leave a voicemail. So you call this number in Pennsylvania, 267-SLY DIAL, they have you either pay or listen to an ad, and then you are in the voicemail of the person you called. As the recorded voice explains on the service, “pretty sly, huh.”
What was cool to me was the ad; it wasn’t just some random ad that added no value to the advertiser—it had targeted appeal and a real direct response component, which says to me that there is some staying power to this service. Second, I like the attitude/personality that the brand emotes. In addition to the “pretty sly” comment, when I tried to dial my number as my test run. She (the sassy recorded voice) quickly replied, “don’t you have any friends” and then chided me for dialing my own number. I laughed for a second, which soon ended when I realized that I really don’t have any friends.
Update: Our self-proclaimed Chief Awesome Officer just texted me with a poorly structured statement of dislike for Sly Dial in comparison to Pinger. You probably are wise enough to realize that Pinger and Sly Dial aren’t very similar, but then again, you missed the Ender’s Game comparison. Irrespective of that thought, check Pinger out as well; it looks pretty neat.
Filed under: innovation, marketing | Tags: Amsterdam, Boston, Brussels, bus, cheap travel, CheapTickets, Easy, EasyCruise, Edinburgh, Eurohike, ferry, hotwire, innovation, London, marketing, Megabus, National Express, National Rail, New York, Oxford, Paris, Quiet Innovations, Ryanair, SeaFrance, Stratford-upon-Avon, train
My wife and I started our wintry trip with a 1½ mile walk to the Oxford train station. We had two Eurohike ‘rucksacks’ between the two of us, plus a pair of umbrellas, some food and water, and two cameras. Mobility is of a high importance when we travel, as cabs and convenient traveling options are often not in the budget (we feel a real kinship with the Show Us Your Cheap contest entrants).
Our trip was primarily governed by the cheap National Rail train and National Express bus deals available that 2006 holiday season. We hit Stratford-upon-Avon, but didn’t pay to see Shakespeare’s or Anne Hathaway’s home. We went to Edinburgh, but skipped the underground city. Instead, we reveled in the cost-free beauties of the cities. After taking the train from Edinburgh to London, we had opted not to take the expensive London-to-Oxford train. We instead paid the few pounds cost to hop aboard the clean and comfortable Megabus.
The following spring, we took the same gear, adding a Johnson & Johnson tchotchke bag, to tackle Western Europe by primarily traveling and attempting to sleep on daytime and overnight National Express/Eurolines buses and a tiny EasyCruise riverboat, and by walking onto a SeaFrance RORO ferry (though we did take a TGV to Calais as a gift to me, and a currency exchange error on my part landed us in a nicer Paris hotel for the Easter weekend). After we were dumped off in downtown London, we again were happy to pay the small amount for our Megabus tickets home.
My final low-cost story reviews our most recent trip was this year. We hit Boston and New York, crashing at friends and family, staying in Hotwire-garnered hotels outside the city (and for a time, using a Hotwire-acquired rental), living on shared $5 Subway sandwiches (that promotion was a wallet-saver), and flying on JetBlue’s ‘red-eyes’. While planning, my wife and I found we needed to find a way to get from Boston to New York, and we loath spending over $10 for nearly anything. Our fears quickly vanished when we discovered that Megabus had recently added a Boston to New York route. Fortunately for us, the riders the week before were the guinea pigs (they luckily had a New York native aboard to help the lost driver), and we experienced a low-stress, low-priced—$8—jaunt into Manhattan.
Of course this isn’t about the chain-smoking and music that we had to endure on the bus from Amsterdam to Paris (it was awful), or about the 12am – 2am creepy tour of Brussels (it was the least expensive time to get there); it is about the reasons that Megabus as become one of the constants in our travels.
Megabus isn’t innovative simply because it caters to me and all of my fellow dinner-sharing, park-and-riding, non-AC-using cheapos. It wins because it has created a platform that wholly embraces the web and in so doing, passes on the cost-savings to the consumer (often said, but not often executed). They are succeeding in a thought-to-be-dead industry, using an Easy and/or Hotwire type motel, where seats are sold with a supply-demand treatment. Instead of looking at seats as a perishable item, like, say an airline that drastically cuts costs at the last minute to fill their plane, they look at their space as a commodity. When there are a lot of seats available, it’s $1 to ride, and every seat taken increases that cost. The magic also comes in the routes they chose. The focus on high-use routes (LON-OX, BOS-NY), knowing that if consumers are made aware, the Megabus seats will fill. And, as a result of their model, they cut through the clutter—it seems primarily by word-of-mouth—and their services begin to own the route. Their success comes in adapting a proven, customer-centric model (seen most effectively with Ryanair and Easy; and I mean customer-centric not in a fluffy way, but in the way the customer does the work in securing the tickets, planning, etc.) in an antiquated industry, knowing that their larger competitors are hard-pressed to change their business models to compete.
As a result, Megabus wins.
Filed under: innovation, online media | Tags: Disney, Disney Magical Express, Facebook, iPhone, Lee Cockerell, London Underground, One Person Trend Stories, Oyster, Quiet Innovations, service innovation, Tumblr, Wolff Olins
Disney and London Underground have very little in common, except perhaps that both are a part of vacation experiences. But they do have two very different but very inventive service offerings that you ought to learn about. And I am going to do a bit of a cop out on this one. Since I have already written about this with Wolff Olins, I will direct you to that work (it is much more in detail, and their are some nice applications that you can take with you as well). It includes a nice discussion with Lee Cockerell and a in-depth look at the Oyster Card. Take a look, you may enjoy it. If not, let me know why.
In the meantime, I have come across a tumblr site that is very well written and quite enjoyable to read. It is called One Person Trend Stories, and it is worth a look. Today’s post was:
… One Woman Takes a Stand Against Coffee Shops That Play Really Loud Music
Yesterday it featured a man that refused to buy the iPhone and a few days ago we read of a woman that refused to look at her ex boyfriend’s Facebook updates. How can you refuse to read that?
Filed under: design, innovation | Tags: Aqualisa, innovation, iterative innovation, Kramer, Queen's Award, Quiet Innovations, Rawlinson, Seinfield, showers
British company Aqualisa was recently was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise* because of the organization’s innovative products. Managing Director Harry Rawlinson remarked:
It is a real triumph for everyone at Aqualisa who has supported our ‘digital revolution’ over the last 10 years.
In another place we read:
What’s not to love about Axis Digital? Cool good looks and clever technology.
And the UK’s Intellectual Property Office reports:
In the meantime, the innovation team at Aqualisa is working on the next generation of electronic controls for showers, which will be able to give you a read-out of your carbon footprint, as well as playing music as an MP3.
That’s right; the next generation of showers. “Clever technology”, “digital revolution”, “innovation”, and “MP3” are not terms normally associated with showers. As a result of their different approach, Aqualisa has excelled in a typically commoditized field because of their ability to look beyond what the market is offering to what they’ll be able to create for their consumer-base. They are a design-led firm and that love of design, both in aesthetics and in functionality, has translated into beautiful and useful products for the bathroom
Though this seems like what most “innovative” companies try to do, it is what Aqualisa doesn’t do that is most impressive. Though we can see what the future holds for with the “next generation” product mentioned above, Aqualisa took a purposely iterative innovation approach toward preparing the market to be able to accept and embrace each successive technology. And, with this approach, they are able to make each step toward their eventual vision at the same time they are implementing and adapting to the needs of their customer-base. With this approach, Aqualisa can expect to continue to stay ahead of the competition without staying too far ahead of their customers’ needs.
(I couldn’t help but think of Kramer’s shower experience when I was thinking through Aqualisa’s approach).
*Gordon Brown categorized the “Queen’s Award winning companies” as the “standard-bearers for the very best of British business.” This and Rawlinson quote from: Press Release, accessed 16 July 2008
