And now, the Good News (at least, for me and mine)...

...that I fear (okay, know) those guys from the previous post will refuse to get until it hits them with a bat hammered full of nails.

BusinessWeek

The Empathy Economy
"Design thinking" can create rewarding experiences for consumers -- the key to earnings growth and an edge that outsourcing can't beat

You can't Six Sigma your way to high-impact innovation, but you can design your company to generate products and services that provide great consumer experiences, top-line revenue growth, and fat profit margins. That's the sometimes-painful message CEOs in America are learning today.

Quality-management programs can't give you the kind of empathetic connection to consumers that increasingly is the key to opening up new business opportunities. All the B-school-educated managers you hire won't automatically get you the outside-the-box thinking you need to build new brands -- or create new experiences for old brands. The truth is we're moving from a knowledge economy that was dominated by technology into an experience economy controlled by consumers and the corporations who empathize with them.

"Outside-the-box"? Screeeeeee. But good for BusinessWeek. Now, as soon as the American Marketing Association can bucketize and structure the ROI on "empathy," offering controls and metrics... well, then we can we can really consider this a serious development.

Enjoy your weekend. Go get yourself a heapin' helping of humanity.