Why Trusting Your Gut Instinct Might be the Best Thing You Ever do
Fifteen years ago I started a business from the second bedroom of my apartment. I had very limited funds and no experience in the sector that I intended to operate in. Before I started I shared my business plan with my friends and family. The majority of them advised me against proceeding. A good mate [...]
Why Common Wisdom is Often Unwise
Heard this recently; “There’s always room for improvement”? What about “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? W. Edwards Deming was an American engineer and statistician who educated the Japanese about quality control for the best part of the last century. Imagine that. He was worshipped in Japan for his ability to find continual improvements [...]
We can all learn a lot from the humble ant.
Have you ever watched ants close up? It’s an interesting study. A few months ago I watched a group of ants converge on some food scraps in a park. Over the course of several hours they carried all of the scraps away presumably back to their colony. Fascinated by this I set up a few [...]
How Apple Buried the Past, Avoided Bankruptcy and Became an Icon
In 1985 Steve Jobs got booted out of Apple, the company he co-founded back in 1976. In his absence the business plummeted to such a degree that bankruptcy was a distinct possibility. When he returned in 1997, following the acquisition of his company NeXT by Apple, he inherited a business with severe cash flow problems, [...]
Diesel Create Facepark | The Analog Version Of Facebook
Diesel’s “Be Stupid” campaign platform continues to drive innovation and awesomeness in there approach to social engagement. Diesel has created a social event called Facepark, a live event where thousands turned up to create an analog version of Facebook, simulating pretty much everything you can do on Facebook in a physical format, starting with every guest receiving a profile [...]
Introducing Joshua Lalor to uncluttered white spaces and 6.2
? 6.2 would like to introduce Joshua Lalor, our latest member to the 6.2 and uncluttered white spaces team. Josh is a marketing student at the University of Western Sydney. A stint as a professional cricketer has extended the duration of Josh’s study but has opened many doors and networks for him in the business, [...]
Creative Artificial Constraints | Art Versus Science
This is an idea I’ve toyed with for awhile, but never fully fleshed out. I thought that perhaps putting it out there might generate some interesting feedback to help refine it. Essentially: Creative output with almost no constraints generally falls under the category of Art. Creative output with real-world constraints is more often considered Design. [...]
Why Every Restaurant Should Allow Bill Splitting
I love a damned good plate of spaghetti marinara. In fact I’ll drive half- way across town to get a good one. Fresh seafood, garlic, a splash of wine and chilli served with al dente pasta really hits the spot for me. Two weeks ago I had one of the best ever in one of [...]
Leading vs Lagging and the 5 Negative Barriers that Destroy Business.
I read with interest a recent article from the Bull on ‘Men and Women Behaving Badly’ where he outlined the five negative behaviors which will destroy a business’ culture: dishonesty superiority narcissism fence sitting Johnny-come-lately. All true and it would be a foolish person to suggest any of these behaviors are good for business in [...]
The Bull’s 10 Rules for a Successful Business
The first thing I’ll say is that the above title is written with a heavy dose of irony and my tongue wedged firmly in my cheek. The truth is that I’m not a big fan of rules generally and even less for those that get in the way of sensible progress. Break them and create [...]
Is “Creativity” the most effective trait in business?
IBM’s Institute for Business Value has shown that CEOs value “Creativity” as the most effective trait. For too many companies, their customers are becoming more and more connected to the gloabl community but unfortunately, they are becoming less connected to the company. With the world interconnected from an economic, social, and political persepective, its about time [...]
Calibrate Your Thoughts and Move a Few Steps Closer to Being Steve Jobs
What standards are you working to? My father liked his sayings, and one of the most oft spoken was the proverb “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well” But just what is a job done well? If you show a grandparent your PHD thesis, they’ll say it’s a job done well. But unless [...]
‘Members Only’ Grilled Cheese Dealing for New Yorkers
Bread.Butter.Cheese. is the ingenious new underground joint dishing out grilled cheese fixes to downtown New Yorkers. Communicating exclusively through their Facebook page, the anonymous culinary artists list their ingredients online everyday, taking orders via SMS. Operating out of an apartment, those lucky enough to be ‘members’ organise a drop off point and time, collecting their [...]
1 of Six Tips For Designing a Memorable Brand
Fast COmpany have created an article highting 6 really cool tips for creating an engaging brand. “You never see a logo by itself,” says Yang Kim. Instead, it’s usually part of an overall brand that when well-executed takes into account everything from self- and outward perception to media landscape. For their new book, Kim and [...]
The Four Pillars of Awesomeness… fed by Passion
Lets talk about awesomeness. However, lets start with awareness and what it means? Surely it is the ability to uncover and pursue what you can do best. Such as knowing know what drives you. How does your drive scale throughout your life? Your company? Your market? Does your definition of awareness or drive differ from [...]
Infograph | Facebook Reach the 500 Million User Milestone
Facebook reached its 500 million member milestone yesterday and celebrated the event with the launch of Facebook Stories. The monumental moment also played a role in the ABC World News report featuring acandid interview between Diane Sawyer and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. To commemorate the achievement, the team at Facebakers.com put together the comprehensive infographic included below (click to enlarge). [...]
From the Bull | Which levers should I pull?
When you break business down to its fundamentals it is actually a simple concept. Basically, you need to have a product or service that solves a market problem, that you can sell in large enough quantities and at high enough prices to earn an acceptable return on investment for the owners of the business. It [...]
Is $48,500 a year enough to follow your passion? What would you do?
If you were able to make $48,500 a year by following your passion, would you do it? That number comes from 279 Days to Overnight Success, an e-book by writer and world traveler Chris Guillebeau that outlines how he became a full-time writer/blogger in less than a year. Depending on who you are and where you [...]
Who is Really Driving Your Strategy?
Inside most modern companies, strategic innovation is still being approached from fragmented departments in covert labs with almost zero consideration for the end consumer. Whilst this is changing, there is still an imbalance in the approach for companies and leaders in relation to innovation strategy. Running a think tank for a business in Sydney last [...]
The Old Spice campaign is clever but it’s not viral!
The third installation of Old Spice’s ads featuring the impossibly charismatic Isaiah Mustafa was a little unexpected. Isaiah and the creative team have been rather busy of late – listening, researching and responding in very personal and meaningful ways to people who have mentioned the first two ads across all types of media. Currently I count [...]
FROM THE BULL | I’ve lost my job. What do I do?
Economists believe we are currently in the worst global economic times of the past 70 years. World growth rates are low or negative and unemployment has increased significantly. Some sectors have been hit harder than most with massive job losses in the finance and manufacturing sectors. The once-revered USA car makers have been fighting for [...]
The Honest Tea Campaign Tests Boston.
OK, ignoring the painful soundtrack for a brief moment, The Honest Tea campaign is a good idea and a lot of fun. The company makes the claim social responsibility is central to Honest Tea’s identity and purpose. Nice to see 96% of Boston locals are supportive of the honest approach. Lets hope the cool kids [...]
Are you fit enough to create purpose?
For all but the most committed, an engineering degree is a hard slog. Dry math, laborious labs, drivelling lecturers; no wonder we have a reputation for drinking. So I’ll save you all that, and just pass on my single best lesson from those 5 long (long) years: Quality = Fitness for purpose Yep, 5 years, [...]
The Sustainable Future in Sydney | 5 days to go.
On the 14th of July, uncluttered white spaces is hoster a talk in Sydney on the Sustainable Future. As our environment is currently facing huge obstacles that have the potential to seriously disrupt our future and the future of our shared environment. Whilst there is speculation, the current apocalyptic predictions for our planet tend to paralyze people [...]
