Hope You Had a Wonderful Christmas

Slowly but surely, this year´s Christmas are history. Here in the Czech republic for example, the 24th will be remembered as the day with the most sent sms messages in the history of our country--almost 60 mil. pieces in total--which makes it cca 6 messages per every single Czech, no matter how old he or she is. Well, as you can observe, we´re indeed no more a developing country. In fact, we´ve become the mobile messaging tiger! What do cultural stereotypes say about this? Foreigners with czech girlfriends or boyfriends, be prepared for everything. One day, your czech partner could propose to you his/her own way - witn an sms :)

Dear friends and colleagues, I hope you spent your Christmas as best as you could, no matter where, no matter with whom.

One hour ago, I got an email from one friend of mine living in Vancouver. This guy has influenced me a lot. In his email, there was one sentence which I found quite...publishable if you like: "this is the time of year where I sit back and evaluate how things went last year, and where I want to go for next year." What do you think? You know I really liked what that guy wrote to me, since it actually made me think that way too...

Rath a Zvěřina by to mohli dát dohromady

Zase poruším své vlastní pravidlo (od čeho už ta pravidla jsou..) a nedá mi to než vyslovit jedno vážné podezření k panu ministru (abych byl korektní) taky "doktoru" Davidu Rathovi, novém českém rekordmanovi v počtu podání žalob na svou osobu během doby co se stal ministrem zdravotnictví. Jestli pan ministr v něčem vyniká, pak je to právě tato "disciplína." Ach málem bych zapomněl ještě na jedno - pan ministr je prvním českým ministrem, kt. se otevřeně hlásí k mnohoženství. Ale to už je jiná kapitola.
Zpátky k Petru Zvěřinovi. Dal jsem si jej do souvislosti s panem ministrem proto, že, jak se mohl národ na ministrově poslední tiskovce po jeho zvolení Pražským lídrem ČSSD, rozhodně "taky voe nepřijel do Prahy na babetě voe." Svého hlavní soupeře v tomto nadcházejícím klání, předsedu ODS Topolánka předem ocejchoval jako "valacha" odkudsi z prd... republiky (Topolánek pochází z Valašska) a podle jeho názoru určitě vyhraje, padž "mí Pražané mi určitě rozumnějí a nebudou volit cizáka, kterého s Prahou spojuje jen to, že si tady koupil byt." Trochu panu ministrovi uniklo, že samotný vůdce ČSSD Paroubek kandiduje v Ústí ačkoliv pochází z Olomóca (což je podle mě na mapě ještě dál a navíc - nemá tam ani ten byt). Aha?!
Zmíněná ekvilibristika pana ministra nese jasný rukopis baviče národa (v negativní smyslu slova) Petra Zvěřiny, který jako první tento těžký, vážný, tzv. "babetový argument" použil jako první a snad na něj vlastní i práva. Zatím jsme se nedozvěděli, kde to pan ministr vlastně bydlí, jestli taky přímo na Václaváku nebo někde jinde. Nedivil bych se, kdyby to ti dva spolu táhli nějak dohromady, leccos spolu mají společného, hlavně přesvědčení, že civilizace končí na pátém kilometru D1 směrem na Brno (a to jsem optimista). Petr Zvěřina by mohl být skvělým ministrovým mluvčím např. Nebo rovnou asistentem, koneckonců "Zvěřina" zní tak trochu jako veterinář :)

Řekl bych, že mu snad i to jeho mnohoženství leze na mozek. Ono totiž všeho moc škodí. A o Rathovi by se to dalo říct dvojnásob. Premiér Paroubek, který si díky Rathovi našel svého předvolebního kašpárka a zlého muže sice zmocnil pana doktora k ministrování, otázkou ovšem zůstává, zda jej tím také neprozřetelně nezmocnil k tomu, aby s ČSSD prohrál jarní volby. Hulvátsví snad bude špatný volební program - i v u nás v Česku. Snad.

Managers, Lead! Or Otherwise Go To Hell.

For the next article, I had been about to hit a completely different topic. But having spent some incredible time with my incredible girlfriend in my favorite city of Zlin, I was on my way back to Mlada Boleslav, driving my car, listening to my self-motivation stuff by Jim Collins on differences between mediocre and truly great companies. I had listened to it many times thus far, yet everytime I put it in the cd player I sort of stumble upon something new, something more relevant to what is going on around me. This time, it was Jim´s take on the leadership capabilities of today´s managers. I played this part several times, and always it stroke me how simple his key remmark was: in case you feel you are the right person on the bus, your contribution to the company is merely voluntary. You know what to do, what your goals are, what should be done and why. You don´t need others to motivate you simply because you be able to motivate yourself accordingly to your own personal values, attitude and qualities. In that case, my gosh, do we actually need a manager who is doing nothin´but "exercising his or hers power"? Ehmmmmm, I DON´T THINK SO. In fact, right now, we are living in a completely new world that is called "the power of choice/the world of many options". Indeed, if you are sitting in the right seat, but on the wrong bus, there is no reason whatsoever why you couldn´t say "enough for me, I´m changing the bus", right? So it that case, as I´ve mentioned above, our contribution to a particular company is merely voluntary. And those right people in the right seats are all volunteers, for at any time they can stand up and go somewhere else. Now WHO is THE GUY who should hold the right people on the bus? Bingo: the manager. And bingo again: is the "power exercising-type-of-manager" the right manager to do the job? NO, it´s not! It´s the leadership type-of -manager. Allright I hear you--how to hell should I judge on what type of manager is my boss like..? A simple solution for that--try the easiest way by asking yourself an easy question: your boss/manager lost his/hers exercising power, would rise a hand for him/her becoming a leader again? Would you like to follow the guy anyway? There you go.
To be fair and realistic, you probably cannot change your own bosses every month. It pretty much depends on how big the company actually is, how the company´s culture works, or just how and if there is any feedback from the people upwards. What you can do at least is adressing your boss by asking the right questions, demanding clear rules, competencies, criteria for success etc. The more you will get your project under your control, the more indispensable you become. Responsibility is the key word. Don´t be scared of it.

Jednoduše jednodušší jednoduchost

Vzpomínám si, a není to zas tak dávno, jak to všechno u nás začlo slovíčkem "nový". Bodejť ne, co jsme taky mohli čekat když byla "nová" reklama sama o sobě. Tedy alespoň ve formě pravidelných reklamních breaků, umísťovaných tak rafinovaně do míst uprostřed těch nejnapínavějších filmových honiček, duchaplných dialogů a milostných scén. Taky si vzpomínám jak po "nový" přišlo "svěží". To už byla skutečná maturita české reklamy. Svěží bylo všechno. Od svěžích myšlenek po svěží pocity. V reklamě bylo tolik svěžesti, že i čeští důchodci se rozhodli chodit později do důchodu.

Letošním frontmanem reklamně-slovních příkrasů zdá se být jednoznačně "jednoduchost", a to ve všech možných podobách, tvarech, komunikačních kanálech. Kopyrajtři se opět spojili s markeťáky aby nám všem usnadnili život alespoň virtuálně. Venku je to dneska "pěknej fičák vole". Supersized porce každodenní realityshow v telce, supersized porce u meka, supersized pracovní povinnosti. Nezapomínejme na premiéra Paroubka, ten je taky pořádně supersized. Jsou ho plná média - většinou doslova - a většinou bohužel. Samo, že si tak trochu střílím gól do vlastní branky - svým způsobem patří Škodovka se svým claimem Simply Clever k pionýrům jednoduše chytrých řešení. Ovšem pozor, my narozdíl od ostatních brandů dodržujeme reklamní pravidlo č. 1: když už plkat, tak alespoň konzistentně. Simply Clever je strategická záležitost, která nepadá s tím, jak se ráno kopyrajtr nebo markeťák vyspí. Kvalita spaní asi nic moc, a tak tu máme "jednoduše jednodušší" kdoví co, "jednoduše volejte levněji" kdoví kam, "jednoduše k dobrému výsledku" kdoví jak, "jednoduše Fiat" kdoví proč (ta firma pořád existuje?) a další a další adepti, kterých zde ještě určitě pár přibude.

Your Boss Is Not A God

And the sooner you recognize it, the better. Look, there´s many bosses in your life. It all started in the kinderkarten. Do you remember what always happening after the launch break? Yeah... Man, I didn´t want to go to sleep only because someone had ordered me to do so. I wanted to do something completely else instead--chatting with other kids, going out for a walk, or juse hanging around the playground. Anyway I swear it was nothing compared to the lunch itself! I don´t know how you guys felt when you were sitting on a small chair behind a small table, eating all this particularly "tasty" dill sauce or boiled tasteless carrot with boiled tasteless potatoes, not being allowed to stand up and walk away until you finished that god damn dish. I felt horrible and helpless, but it tought me a lesson I will never forget: you can´t eat more if you´re not that hungry, even if somebody commands you to do so. Thats right. USE YOUR BRAIN INSTEAD, and use extensively, that means BOTH PARTS OF IT. Be wise. Be realistic. And above all--try to predict. You don´t need a university to figure out what´s happening. Yet, one of the biggest paradoxes in life says you need more than a university to handle things appropriately--simply to react to what´s happening. All the bosses in our lives--from the teachers in kindergarten, our parents, partners, to superior co-workers that sometimes call themselves managers--are no Gods, albeit some of them may be great managers and even phenomenal leaders. If your boss at work sucks, you have to roll with it and behave accordingly to your personal values and character. He or she is definitely NOT the most important person in the company. Guess what--your internal and external customer IS. In fact, those people (internal and external customers) are Gods (well, very little ones, but still...). Therefore, if you are responsible for a project, the first think you should do is to keep in mind the goal of that project. If your boss is not giving you a hand, it is a best opportunity for you to navigate through the process by yourself. Remember that in the end, you are paid for the results, not for managing your own boss. He or she may not be there forever.

Černý Petr se nezdá býti uncool aneb Jak se žije ve Škodovce

Rozmáhá se u nás nešvár, zvaný těhotenství. Na nedávné mítingu s bossem to došlo až tak daleko, že všem (zejména ženám) pohrozil Černým Petrem. Bude jen jeden a bude sloužit celému oddělení Markomu. Pěkně z ruky do ruky. A vždy jen jeden ročně a běda jestli ne, holoto nezodpovědná. Zkrátka 1 očekávané dítě za rok je max. Někdo vznesl dotaz, jestli není ta nízká dosavadní morálka dána tím, že máme málo práce a tak zbývá hodně času na nepravosti doma. Byl zavražděn pohledy ostatních. Jeden německý kolega si hned přisadil, že prý rovnou dávat na Vánoce v rámci nefinančních odměn balíčky kondomů, že je to dost simply clever. Hodně muziky za málo peněz. Čili porada nám rychle uběhla. Což se nedá říct o dnešním dni, který jsem já sám strávil mazlením se s pěkně hutnou prezentací Marketingrahmenplan 2006. Že prý jsem "The Guy", tak proto. Jakože jsem nejlepší na Powerpoint...což je koneckonců pravda. Teda, ne, že bych se tím chtěl nějak chlubit.......to je prostě fakt. Schválně jsem si na to vzal do práce namísto standardního outluku "kravaťák" džíny a tričko. Jestli to fabriku uprostřed Arbeitswoche položí, jestli se systém zastaví či zhroutí, a ono se vůbec nic nestalo.

Není tohle vlastně můj první feedback ze Škodovky od té doby, co mě draftovali? Hrůza, jak jsem to mohl vydržet. Tuhle jsem četl příspěvek na blogu mého kamaráda, vystupujícího pod iniciály VB (jistě jde o nějakou recesi) ..nastoupil tam, odkud jsem já před pár měsíci vystoupil...A tento VB se potřeboval "vykecat" už po pár dnech. Laďo, spolu to postavíme do latě. Ty z jedné strany, já z druhé. Bude to dřina, ale stojí to za to. Hleďme vstříc světlým zítřkům české marketingové branže! Hleďmě jim vstříc natruc všem kreativním asistentkám pánů ředitelů a uklizeček, které člověka nenechají ani se pořádně do osmi vyspat nechápajíc, jak se člověk psychicky a fyzicky cítí po celodenním peklu na zemi zvaném agenturní status v agentuře. Nezvítězí! Neprojdou!

Na závěr jako obvykle jedno životní ponaučení. Nechte toho, už je mi šestadvacet. Viděl bych to asi takhle: všechny ty, jak jsem jim jakože říká "hard skills" jsou většinou na houby nemá-li člověk v sobě optimální "optiminerálový" mix ve formě sociálních dovedností, což se opět někdy trochu zkráceně a zjednodušeně označuje jako EQ. Pracujte na tom. Čtěte, poznávejte lidi, naučte se poslouchat a nebojte se říct "já nevím". Nevědět není hřích, není to špatné. Horší je říct "vím," a přitom nevíte. A úplně nejhorší je říct "já nevím" a pak to za týden zopakovat-to už není normální. "Nevím, ale určitě na to přijdu/zjistím" je to, co je důležité se pro život i práci naučit a samozřejmě se podle toho zařídit.

Mějte se vysoce produktivně :) Next time it´s gonna be about our personal Sweet Spots. Sounds enticingly, doesn´t it?

Benzina se opravdu snaží. Opravdu stupidní kampaň je výsledkem.

Už dlouho mě něco tak nepobavilo, jako dvě poslední nadlinkové kampaně s nálepkou "státní", či státem placené abych byl přesný: kampaň značky klasA a kampaň Benziny. O klasA toho vím víc, než je zdrávo, padž jsem na této kampani asi měsíc pracoval v jedné nejmenované agentuře. Pamatuji si docela přesně, co mi ulítlo z úst po prvním seznámení se s již nalajnovanou kreativou. "Ach můj bože.." Ale o tom snad jindy. Veselých příběhů ze života není nikdy dost. Dneska to bude o nové kampani Benziny, což je jak jistě víte značka čerpacích stanic. Značka v uvozovkách. Je to takové to červené, no, vlastně někdy taky žluté, no a taky bílé, jak to má pokaždé jiné logo ještě z dob totáče, obsluha se od těch dob taky moc nezměnila, nemluvě o záchodcích. Prostě typický český superbrand ve stylu "jsme skvělí, protože mámy ty pumpy v každé prdeli".
K věci. Zpráva z ihned.cz z 22. 3.: Benzina minulý týden odstartovala imageovou kampaň. Cílem je představit novou náplň této tradiční značky. Kampaň ve formě TV spotů, sponzoringu časomíry, rozhlasových spotů, venkovní reklamy a tiskové inzerce stojí na třech pilířích: upozornit na českou značku s 47letou tradicí a její kvalitní servis, udržet znalost značky a dostat ji do povědomí jako poskytovatele kvalitních pohonných hmot a posunout image směrem k moderní čerpací stanici.
Jak říká můj oblíbený klasik: "Záměr jistě dobrý. Výsledky nebyly dobré." Výsledek, tedy především TV spot, je hodně daleko od toho, abych jej mohl označit alespoň za dostačující. Podle mě je to stupidní spot, vypovídající leccos o úrovni české reklamy a "kvalitě" reklamních plánovačů. Kýčovitý patos: staří chlapi v červených dresech hrají fotbal--záběr české luhy a háje--záběr na červenou čerpací stanici--projíždějící historické (červené) vozidlo--voice over něco v tom smyslu, že "tradice.. třistapadesát let..prověřená kvalitka..spojujeme se s budoucností.." Tyjo, palba jako blázen, to už si říkám, že lepší jsou ty billboardy na plynové kotle u cest. Celkový dojem = reklama z první poloviny šílených 90. let (minulého století). Bravo agentuře Dorland! Ze své ztráty Dobré vody před pěti lety ("...denně doma") se do dneška pánové a dámy nevzpamatovali. Plánovaní nula. Myšlenka nula. Kreativita nula. Člověk, který vybral v tendru tuhle agenturu musel mít hodně slabý den. Štve mě, že zhůvěřilosti jako je tento vznikají za moje peníze.

The Stockdale Paradox

Long time no post here...yeah, but I´m trying to read, ok? And, besides that, it´s summer time--I guess I´m the only one surfing on the net :-)
Anyway, while studying in Vancouver, a management book was recommended to me by Ron, my black teacher in Academic Preparation courses. He came over to me the other day saying: "This book is what the CEOs are reading right now all around the world. Tom, I know you´re gonna like it." And I did :-) I still do. Before writing anything more about this book or its author, Jim Collins, a top-drawer leadership expert, I´ve decided to post an excerpt from it. A favorite story of mine--The Stockdale Paradox.

The name refers to Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was the highest-ranking United States military officer in the „Hanoi Hilton“prisoner-of-war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. Tortured over twenty times during his eight-year imprisonment from 1965 to 1973, Stockdale lived out the war without any prisoner’s rights, no set release date, and no certainty as to whether he would even survive to see his family again. He shouldered the burden of command; doing everything he could to create conditions that would increase the number of prisoners who would survive unbroken while fighting an internal war against his captors and their attempts to use the prisoners for propaganda. At one point, he beat himself with a stool and cut himself with a razor, deliberately disfiguring himself, so that he could not be put on videotape as an example of a well-treated prisoner. He exchanged secret intelligence information with his wife through their letters, knowing that discovery would mean more torture and perhaps death. He instituted rules that would help people to deal with torture /no one can resist torture indefinitely, so he created a step-wise system—after x minutes, you can say certain things—that gave the men milestones to survive toward/. He instituted an elaborate in internal communications system to reduce the sense of isolation that their captors tried to create, which used a five-by-five matrix of tap codes for alpha characters /tap-tap equals the letter a, tap-pause-tap-tap equals the letter b, and so forth, for twenty-five letters/. At one point, during an imposed silence, the prisoners moped and swept the central yard using the code, swish-swashing out „We love you“ to Stockdale, on the third anniversary of his being shot down. After his release, Stockdale became the first three-star officer in the history of the navy to wear both aviator wings and the Congressional Medal of Honor.

You can understand, then, my anticipation at the prospect of spending part of an afternoon with Stockdale. One of my students had written his paper on Stockdale, who happened to be a senior research fellow studying the Stoic philosophers at the Hoover Institution right across the street from my office, and Stockdale invited the two of us for lunch. In preparation, I read In Love and War, the book Stockdale and his wife had written in alternating chapters, chronicling their experiences during those eight years.

As I moved through the book, I found myself getting depressed. It just seemed so bleak—the uncertainty of his fate, the brutality of his captors, and so forth. And then, it dawned on me: „Here I am sitting in my warm and comfortable office, looking out over the beautiful Stanford campus on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I’m getting depressed reading this, and I know the end of the story! I know that he gets out, reunites with his family, becomes a national hero, and gets to spend the later years of his life studying philosophy on this same beautiful campus. If it feels depressing for me, how on earth did he deal with it when he was actually there and did not know the end of the story? „I never lost faith in the end of the story,“ he said, when I asked him. „I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.“ ----------------

I didn´t say anything for many minutes, and we continued the slow walk toward the faculty club. Finally, after about a hundred meters of silence, I asked, „Who didn´t make it out?“ „Oh, that´s easy,“ he said. „The optimists.“ „The optimists? I don´t understand,“ I said, now completely confused, given what he´d said a hundred meters earlier. „The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, „We´re going to be out by Christmas.“ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then, the´d say „We´re going to be out by Easter.“ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.“ Another long pause and more walking. Then he turned to me and said, „This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.“ To this day, I carry a mental image of Stockdale admonishing the optimists: „We´re not getting out by Christmas. Deal with it!“

I Got It! :-)

Yesterday, it was quarter to eight in the evening, my cellphone rang. I got a call from my personnel agent--Mr. Dittmann. It was THE call--the ONE I´d been desperately awaiting since my very final interview with the head of sales and marketing dpt. at Skoda Auto company last Wednesday. So, after four interviews in three weeks, I finally got it! I pulled it off! :o) Brand Manager at Skoda--presumably the most admired company in the Czech republic--will be my very next job. Having quit the Ogilvy Mather´s BBK ad agency only two weeks ago, I was facing a win all / lose all situation. Hence, it´s clear that I shouted YES quite loudly upon hearing Mr. Dittmann´s big news yesterday :-)

Now, let me just add one thing here, let´s call it "lessons learned"... As some of you would opine, more or less deliberately, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Yes, I wanted to hit that proverb and I wanted to hit it deliberately indeed: this is not the right way of thinking when you want or plan to achieve something better in your live, respectively in your career. There´s a space in our lives between action and reaction, between stimulus and response, it´s called freedom to choose and I love the way Stephen Covey--the world´s no. 1 guy in personal development and leadership--puts it it his latest book The 8th Habit: In those choices lie our growth and our happiness. Your power to choose the direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future, and to powerfully influence the rest of creation. It is the one gift that enables us to elevate our life to higher and higher levels.

I believe that according to this, the choice between a bird in the hand and two birds in the bush is, in fact, the choice between mediocrity and something more than merely that--something really great. As for me, I do not want to live a good, mediocre life, I do want to live a great life. With the right vision, discipline, and passion, everyone´s invited.

Česká vsuvka - nějak jsem měl vždy spadeno na personální agentury... navíc ne úplně pozitivní zkušenost jsem udělal z Kanady :)...O to nadšeněji teď musím prohlásit, že spolupráce s Dittmann Consulting, resp. Horton International, konkrétně s p. Leo Dittmannem byla naprosto skvělá, profesionální, s vysokou přidanou hodnotou.

Why Is SONY In Troubles

I like the way Al Ries puts it: Hang too much on a star and it will fall from the sky. Clear. Simple. And true too. SONY is experiencing serious profit troubles as a result of that. In fact, if you did a survey, you would probably find that Sony is the world’s most admired electronics brand. Way ahead of whoever might be in second place. However, like most Japanese companies, SONY is heavily line extended. Sony puts its brand name on television sets, videocassette recorders, digital cameras, personal computers, cellphones, semiconductors, camcorders, DVD players, MP3 players, stereos, headphones, broadcast video equipment, computer screens, computer hardware, batteries and bunch of other products.

Again, building a brand and building a profitable brand are two different things. Does SONY make any money? The sad fact is NO. Net profits after taxes of SONY Corporation are tiny. In the last ten years, SCorporation had revenues of $519.2 billion. But net profits after taxes were only $4.0 billion. That’s 8/10th of one percent of sales. It’s hard paying off your bank loans, not to mention paying dividends to investors, with that kind of return.

Yet Sony’s most profitable product is the PlayStation video game, a brand which makes only marginal use of the SONY name.

Here are some interesting business insights I´ve found on the Internet:

Compare SONY with Dell Computer. Sony makes personal computers and a lot of other products. Dell just makes personal computers (until recently when they added printers.) In the last ten years, Dell Computer had sales of $140.3 billion and net profits after taxes of $8.5 billion, or a net profit margin after taxes of 6.1 percent.

That’s not fair, you might be thinking. To compare with Sony, you picked a company (Dell) that is exceptionally profitable.

Actually that’s not true. Dell is in a highly competitive business where profit margins are thin. (IBM has never made money in the personal computer business and Hewlett-Packard’s PC business is barely profitable.) As a result, Dell’s 6.1 percent profit margin is not spectacular.

The New York Times follow-up article here:
Falling Prices Bring A Deeper Loss At Sony

The First Non-Japanese CEO At Sony. Has The World Gone Mad?

I´m sure some of you´ve noticed that SONY has a new CEO. An American guy called Howard Stringer--the firs non-Japanese chief executive in the history of SONY. Who is the man who will run the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant?

Sixty-three years old. Born in Wales and has both US (since 1985) and UK citizenship. Has never lived in Japan nor does he speak Japanese. Holds BA and MA from Oxford University but soon after graduating moved to the US, where he has lived since. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. Will continue to live in New York and commute to the Sony headquarters in Tokyo, while his family (wife and two children) live in the UK.

Brought together the previously disparate US music and movie operations. Four years after arriving at Sony was given CEO leadership of the music, movies and electronics businesses in the US.

In a memo to Sony employees, said the company needs to "reinvent" its legacy and "accelerate cross-company collaboration". Advocates quickening the pace of change and innovation to keep businesses competitive, restoring focus on pleasing customers and restructuring businesses to improve profitability.

Well, hopefully Mr. Stringer knows the difference between a brand and a profitable brand. The simple fact is, Sony is in deep, self-imposed trouble. Over the past couple of years, there´s been "something wrong" with its business. These days, Sony makes almost everything. Except money.

Appointing Mr. Stringer a new CEO might have been a bold step. Kudos for that, guys. Maybe the world has gone mad, but this is definitely not an example of it.

Stando, hni se už!

Podle zpravodajských, infotainmentových a i tzv. kuloárních (přeložím: kuloár znamená "to jediné, čemu se dá ještě dneska v politice věřit") titulků z dnešního dne (celé texty nemá smyslu číst, jsou i lepší způsoby jak plýtvat svým časem) šel náš ministerský předseda "do sebe" a připustil, že odstoupí a přenechá svou nevděčnou funkci někomu jinému. Bravo. Na nedávném sjezdu Socdemáků byl Standa Gross označen jako "vyhořelé palivo". Standa argumentoval tím, že i TO je stále aktivní. Všechny nakonec udivilo, jak prozíravá, hluboká a správná byla jeho myšlenka. Zasloužil by si za ni Řád hrošího kožíšku. Jeho splachovačnost, oproti ostatním národům u nás Čechů již tak dost vysoká, se v jeho případě stala příslovečnou. Opravdu se nemůžu zbavit dojmu, že (když už jsme zmínili to vyhořelé palivo) poločas rozpadu osobní integrity Stanislava Grosse, kdysi "nejoblíběnějšího z politiků" (což je samo o sobě dost relativní, alespoň podle mých mých měřítek soudě dle českých reálií..) je úctyhodně dlouhý. Možná si teď najde místo v jaderné energetice. Jak říká klasik, "pro mě za mě, ať si jde třeba do prdele."

Podle mého osobního názoru, kt. nechci a nehodlám nikomu vnucovat, nebyl Stanislav Gross dobrým premiérem. Přejdu to, že byl příliš mladý, nezkušený, postrádal charisma, schopnost vést a inspirovat. Pro mě je zásadní jedna jediná věc a tou je nedostatek charakteru. Můj guru říká, že character is the will to do what is right--even when it´s hard. Hodí se vám k tomu Stanislav Gross?

Catholic Church Running Out Of Steam?

"Church Fights Da Vinci Code Novel"
"Vatican Assault On DaVinci Code"
"Vatican Officially Denounces The DaVinci Code"
"Cardinal´s Plea: Do Not Read DaVinci Code"

Oh my Gosh, there´s a lot of noise in the media about the Catholic Church disparaging the world´s no. 1 selling novel--DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. As a matter of fact, looking at the headlines, the "disparage" verb I used is a very diplomatic term indeed... For it seems the soft spoken language that usually comes from the Catholic Church officials is anything but diplomatic. It´s quite offensive. Can anybody tell me, why did the Vatican go crazy about some mainstream novel instead of trying to tackle some really important issues the Catholic Church has been facing over the last decades? With the number of Catholics declining, financial as well as sexual abuse scandals on the rise, and the Pope presumably at his eleventh hour, I just don´t get it! Helooo! You guys are obviously trying to perform an operation on the patient using the heart bypass surgery, but guess what--the patient is dying on cancer!

De-coding DaVinci

The Da Vinci Code, by US author Dan Brown, has been a publishing sensation around the world and is still in best-seller lists. Its conspiracy theories and thriller style, in which two code-breakers try to track down the truth behind the Holy Grail, have caught the imaginations of millions. Its central claim is that the Holy Grail is really the bloodline descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene - which the Church is supposed to have covered up, along with the female role in Christianity. Brown has previously said: "All of the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies, all of that is historical fact."

Vatican Lost It

"The book is everywhere. There is a very real risk that many people who read it will believe that the fables it contains are true."
"Christians should not buy or even read the best-selling thriller."

One Particularly Interesting Fact

The strongest Vatican critic of the novel, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Archbishop of Genoa, Italy, is among those seen as a likely successor to the ailing Pope John Paul II.

My Last Word

Considering the whole picture from a marketer´s point of view, this is a textbook example of how a public effort, no matter how much successful or legitimate, to take on something that is merely commercial (in this case a book), is going to rather burnish the sales and overall popularity/hype that is already quite significant. For me, Dan Brown is a genius. Completely fabricated or not, the novel proved one thing--that the Catholic Church is far from its own resurrection.

Cogito Ergo Sum? Descartes Was Wrong Here.

Come on, we all know this phrase, we all use this phrase. But guess what--it sucks. The phrase per se is flawed, so why should we use it? "I think, therefore I am" is possibly the single best-known philosophical statement and is attributed to René Descartes. Cogito ergo sum (in Latin) is a translation of Descartes' original French statement, Je pense, donc, je suis.

Cogito ergo sum anticipates that our daily desicion-making such as what to do and why, or, particularly important in business, what to buy and why, is the consequence of a strictly rational way of thinking. This idea, brought up by Descartes in 17th century and supported by his partisans (so called continental rationalists) Leibnitz and Spinoza, is simply flawed and untrue. A dead wood indeed. Do I have to prove it? Come on! Take your time, look around yourself and think for a while...
"I think, therefore I am" somehow excludes a lot of people from belonging to homo sapiens, don´t you think so? Well I believe so ;o)

Studies of human psychology have proven people´s decision-making anything but strictly rational; all of us, as living creatures, are permanently finding ourselves, more or less, in a very volatile, unstable, and therefore highly unpredictable mental shape / emotional mood (Bolzano). This eventually prevents us from 100 per cent rational thinking, which makes the difference between a living person--emotionally engaged-- and a dead person--emotionally "disengaged" (or neutral).

Česká vsuvka - kdo máte doma Bureššovu knihu Poziční strategie v marketingu (kterou jsem si překřtil na Všechno co doopravdy potřebujete vědět o marketingu a businessu najdete v tomhle), najdete v ní rozvinutí tématu "co nám filosofie dala pro život a business". Obzvláště podnětné jsou zejména takové autorovy (vyloženě) provokace jako rozdíl mezi kupní silou a tržním potenciálem nebo co skutečně motivuje poptávku (a staví tím pádem rigidní teorie "hamburger" a "cola" ve skriptech základů ekonomie na hlavu, k mému velkému zadostiučinění).

The ultimate prove for all the points above is a single, compelling, yet often misunderstood word. It´s the brand. Reality, numbers, or "true" doesn´t move the world around. Ideas, beliefs, and interpretations of reality does. Consider the long-lasting battle between the two best known business rivals in the world: Coca Cola and Pepsi. Neuroscience has revealed the mental picture of a powerful brand (Coke) is indisputably more important than the actual better taste of its rival (Pepsi). Indeed, in the 2003 laboratory tests by Read Montague, Director of the Human Neuroimaging Lab at Baylor College of Medicine, most people preferred the taste of Pepsi, and yet the majority still bought Coke. (I´m sure some of you know another example described in the advertising bible by David Ogilvy--the whisky contest).

This topic is to be continued... There is lots of stuff to write about ;-)

O Canada

After spending 17 weeks in Vancouver, the second best city for study in the world (Zlin is the first), I´m back alive and kicking. And I brought some cool insights on various topics such as the true meaning of the word "English study" or "cultural diversity". Whereas the former--not so surprisingly--made me a true, definite enemy of the Czech teaching system and methods (this is not solely about languages), the latter provided me with some life lessons and observations one could barely balance with money.

Without any doubts, it was a tremendous lifelong experience; many of the people I met were merely terrific guys: Mexicans, Japanese, Germans, Koreans (not North Koreans :-), Brazilians, Canadians. If Canada is believed to be one of the best places to meet and learn something from young people all around the world, Vancouver is, at the same time, arguably the best choice for that within Canadian borders. "Work hard, play hard" was the ultimate law we had to roll with. And quite often we went far beyond that, finding ourselves being inspired or even coached by each other.

So, as I´m not gonna bore you with more sentimental memories :-), let me get onto our blog issue now. I thought I was going to run a weblog before I actually left my country. I´m glad I didn´t. I wouldn´t have had enought time for this. Well, something tells me I won´t have that time from now on either, yet I have got a lot more confidence and motivation than I had before.

From the get-go, what I´m going to write about is basically the marketing management branch related stuff, including some particularly enticing topics they won´t tell us / we won´t learn at school. Considering marketing as a multidisciplinary course with a single most ultimate goal--to strenghten/improve/burnish businesses through anticipating, creating, and managing customer demand (and vice versa)--I will hit several themes beyond the actual marketing stuff: leadership in particular.
NOT everything is going to be in English.

My only and most important intention here is to share opinions/ideas by inspiring/being inspired, or coaching/being coached by others.

Who Is This Guy?

View My profile