Le biz c'est chic

As an admirer of Clayton M. Christensen’s work, I strongly believe in the importance of innovation in helping companies maintain their competitive advantage.   And although most executives claim innovation is one of their top three priorities (McKinsey Quaterly), the amount of investment in R&D does not reflect that.  In an October 2007 article published on McKinsey Quaterly, 36% of top managers say that innovation is part of daily strategies and operations.  This is disheartening, especially in an environment that do not guarantee incumbent will remain leaders in their industries (not that I am truly complaining), since brand loyalists end up paying the price of this lack of forward-thinking.   As followers of Christensen have learned, when incumbents fail to innovate, they often adopt a defensive stance to disruptors and end up the losers in this uphill battle.  The latest victim, Kodak, failed to take the lead in the digital revolution by scraping plans in creating the first digital camera.  Their lost was Apple, Ericsson, Nokia, LG and Samsung’s gain.  

So why are incumbents so blase when it comes to R&D investment?   According to Mr. Christensen, in Wall Street Journal article, lack of patience maybe to blame.   Disruptive innovations, which are the ones that are truly transformational, tend to take 5-8 years to take shape and often than not, other more nimble companies tend to take the lead, forcing the incumbents in a defensive role.   However, there is a glimmer of hope, especially during this downturn. According to Scott Anthony, large companies have the resources to innovate and take the lead, by doing the process better.  Encouraging intrapreneurship enables them take advantage of their size and capabilities.  Additionally, once startups have success, it tends to be replicated rapidly, especially in this digital environment.  

I like to believe that big companies are not paying lip service to innovation and we do have shining examples like Apple and IBM, however I will hold out judgment on whether they are truly leading the charge in developing products that will change our lives for the better  or continue to leave this role up to startups.

gigidowns:

In just two weeks, the Spanish highstreet retailer will be launching an e-commerce-only homewares line. While physical stores are in the global plans, U.S. shoppers will be able to shop Zara Home for the latest interior looks, for less. 

With more women attending and graduating college, entering the workforce at management-levels, and choosing to live alone, whether they’re decorating a bedroom, dorm room, or first apartment, hand-me-downs just won’t do.

These are the shoppers I discussed in Brooklyn-Based West Elm Stirs the Pot with Market and retailers, even apparel stores, are taking note and meeting their needs with affordable assortments of fabrics and furnishings inspired by the pricer pages of Elle Decor and Dwell. 

I’d love to know if the stores like Sears and Macy’s are paying attention to their own house & home departments — merchandising and marketing specifically to this younger, much more sophisticated but on-a-budget shopper. 

This is fantastic and a great move by Zara, to enter a market that has high markups but great returns. Although a bit saturated by the likes of Ikea, West Elm, Anthropologie/Urban Outfitters and others, Zara will surely create a niche, attracting young women at the beginning of their careers who likes nice things, but can’t afford high end furnishings

patriciahandschiegel:

One of the interesting elements of Condiment is thinking out its ad model.

Advertising is a revenue model that has historically only been limited to information delivery platform business. Communications platform business monetizes with other models.

Banner ads were interesting but not exactly necessary in the digital media environment. They could exist (and turned out to) but they didn’t need to. This is in part because instead of the media industry looking at the internet platform as a disruptor to its legacy platform (print media distribution), it gave it a sideways glance and left the development of how digital media would be distributed to the software industry, which had (and still mostly has) zero experience in media.

Digital magazine CMS platforms could have existed ten years ago, looking and feeling just like a print magazine as they do now. While there may have been ‘some’ technical restrictions, they did not is entirely for the reason above.

Had things been done differently, advertising would look very different now. Not necessarily bad but not exactly the approach that the media industry had to take. It’s problem, like many of those disrupted by the internet in platform business, was not to understand that the internet would ultimately replace their legacy platform. 

Where and how it made sense to interject ads was in open space around the content. The problem is, banner ads are not effective in part because the measurement approach in determining their effectiveness was also not really in line or consistent with how advertising has worked (and how it has been effective) in a traditional, legacy platform (in this case, print media distribution) environment.

It eventually caught up, in a sense, but now measurement is still mostly wrongfully approached — advertisers paying for ‘page views’ versus real audience, enormously and this includes with sites that have high traffic numbers. It’s similar to running ads in a traditional publication that sits in a stack on a busy street, where lots of people pass by but very few pick it up.

I notice ads wherever I go, including online. I rarely click through and that is why as in ad business it needs a blended approach.

No less, media business and platform business in general will right itself and be very similar to what worked before. It’s already going that route. 

It doesn’t mean that banner ads will be entirely eliminated. But, as with anything that is innovative — it usually enhances, adds to, what’s already in play. So it’ll likely be with advertising in the future where all media is primarily distributed digitally over the internet platform.