Snark Division, Random Musings Dept.

Was using the cool OSX spotlight/keyword feature just now on this here electric box and found some old mumblings for which I cannot recall a purpose. Some I recognize, others, Eeek.

Recent surveys indicate your mother is three times more likely to give a cogent decription of brand and it's uses than an advertising agency.

Architectural professionals agree: exposed steel, glass and lots of "funky wire thingies" are much cooler than talking about "that productivity stuff".

Frank Lloyd Wright is hero to millions of creative thinkers. Frank Lorenzo is hero to millions of business thinkers. One asked that people live his vision completely and died broke, the other demanded that people trust his vision while he flew two American icons of transport and 200,000 jobs into the ground.

Art meets commerce every day. One has a brand new pair of roller skates, the other has a brand new key. The resulting bloodshed is appalling.

'Brand' is shorthand for the result of an exploration that many leaders ignore because it's not spreadsheet-able, then misspend wildly on when it bleeds red all over their printouts and people are mapping out egress.

Brand is not about reach, frequency, budgets or what your competitors are saying. it is, however, about stretch, community, profit and how your employees are thinking.

Those who insist on reminding people that the elevator goes both ways, After several cycles, still find themselves at the top. (There is no god.) They're alone. (there is a god.)

Profit is that thing which causes all evil, i.e.: full stomachs, new braces, and vacations to Disney World.

Specialization leads to depth. Except when it leads to parochialism, rote answers and that Darwin thing about adaptability and extinction.

Brand is too valuable to be left to marketers. It's not the suit you put on when you're trying to find a date. It's the body organizational: buff, gregarious and intelligent or flaccid, discounted and angry-shareholdered.

Brands, like babies, do not well endure being passed from hand to hand to hand organizationally. They too, throw-up on well meaning relatives and CEOs after snacking from a 100 different departmental plates.

Spaces that don't implicitly embrace, affirm and animate brand are dead zones for innovation and initiative. And that's just the boardroom.

The average American worker lists challenge and responsibility as their top two job desires; the average American manager lists lack of initiative and inattention as their top two workplace problems.

The business of America is business. Except when we're asking for more money, less work, a new copier, gossiping about our co-workers or timing the boss's lunchbreak.

Apple's Steve Jobs was told to "come back when you graduate" when he interviewed with Hewlett Packard in 1982. Neither David Hewlett nor John Packard finished engineering school.

"Respect for authority and experienced leadership is what made America great." - Richard Milhous Nixon.