simondelliott

Retail parks – going going gone

Over the past couple of months I have been looking into the future of retail  (findings to be published soon …) and in my analysis I could not find a place for the retail park, at least in Europe.

Now that so many retail park companies have gone bust it all seems so obvious.
Why drive somewhere simply because the goods cost less? an Internet company will always be able to undercut a retail park company.

And if its not cost that is pulling in the people then it must be the brand experience or uniqueness that draws them possibly to make their actual purchase online afterwards.

The highstreet with its character history, mass transit systems and large number of small retailers will always have more pulling power.

how to advertise your products using the web

Good advertising is about causing an emotional reaction and associating it with a product. When the audience member is faced with a purchasing decision, they subliminally recall the que, and … bada bing you get a purchase.

In the old days of TV it was easy to place adverts on, in or around programming, the audience was rewarded with contnet for watching the advertising. The  intenet is different, the user can get wound the adverts and are rewarded with the contentent without having to give the advertisers the chance to make them laugh or cry.

The simple answer is to dress the adversing up as content.
Make a “pringles” game or “cheese strings” photo sharing site. Use the existing advertising tricks of “the unexpected” and story telling within the content to get the same emotional reaction.

In a post nuclear age, Is the nuclear family needed?

So the imminent threat of nuclear vaporization has passed away, (or at least its not making the front pages) and has been replaced with the threat of a global ecological meltdown.

There are two trends that complement each other,
1) the new need to reduce carbon emission and therefore the reduction in travel.
2) the ubiquitous availability of high speed network connection.

This will lead to more home based workers.

In the post war period we saw the collapse of the extended family, because young families relocated where the work was in the new towns and next to the new factories and plants.

However in the near future it is not implausible that the work will come to you. Combine this with the more active older generation who are more willing to get involved and you have the perfect conditions for the reintroduction of the extended family.

How a media company is organised

Ive had a pop at describing how the management structure of a media company works. Its a fairly accurate description of an ideally functioning company.

This is really important ….
Its not a hierarchy

read the full article here

I’m hoping that you will look at this and think, ah ha !!! thats how my company works. or even Ah ha thats what they do !!!

How to get buy in

Ive been thinking about how to get buy in for my architectures and designs so ive written this page on how to present your architecture in an interesting way.

Ive come to realize that its not just technical excellence and enthusiasm that  matter when trying to get people to invest in you. Often you have to show them something new, and present it in a way that engages with them.

Doing a poster sized architecture is a method that Im experimenting with. I would also like to say that Francis Cooks idea to laminate such diagrams is cracking and really works.

Is it the end of Internet Anonymity?

I have just been asked to comment on this article on the end of online anonymity on the read write web.

My thoughts are this …

Is on line anonymity dead? The read write web think that the ground breaking case of the US state vs Lori Drew implies that the behaviour of Impersonating (Imping) is now illegal. I think this raises a bigger question,  does human kind have a right to anonymity? and if so, is the behaviour of the judiciary, the bureaucracy and commercial organizations in exploiting new technology to find out even more about us infringing on that right?

The secret ballet is an essential balance in the mechanism of democracy, and as such there is at least one piece of anonymity that a judiciary must protect. However society must be protected. Some might say that anonymity is a privilege rather than a right and that it is the individuals responsibility to guard their own anonymity. If the individual chooses to engage in a criminal activity such as grooming then they relinquish their rights.

My fear is that state will be slow in its response to technical innovation, there is no point shutting the stable door once the horse has bolted.

The 5 core presentation skills

An important aspect part of an architect, business person or innovators role is convincing other people that your ideas or your teams ideas are worth investing in.  So in good technical fashion ive been breaking down what makes a good presentation into its 5 elemental components.

copyrighting
This is the art of writing good strap lines, titles and points. You can learn this from advertisers and poets. Think about simplicity, delete pointless words.

typography
How you place words, emphasize them and where you place them in relation to other objects is important. The basics of graphic design can be self taught from the many books on the subject. I found that the story behind the helvetica font was an interesting starting place.

performance
This is showmanship – at the end of the day you have to present, if you are nervous, mumbling and faltering it will detract from the content that you are trying to present.  Actors and presenters have techniques to help you concor these

composition
This is basic artistic composition, look at how the diagrams you use flow. Imagine yourself looking at the diagram or graphic as an audience member. What does it mean to you? Art history is a good way to learn about composition, and you get to spend some times looking at some really good pictures.

collaboration
Ideas are fragile they need support, the best way to get this is to collaborate with others. Know your collaboration tools well  (wiki, svn, google doc) and use them to get the most out of your friends enthusiasm.

It is important to know these skills well. How can you inspire someone else if you have not been inspired yourself.

Check out my christmass themed graphic !

Technical architecture solution diagram – make it BIG

If your presenting a technical architecure diagram and you want to involve the audience, then

Make it BIG!!!
make it REALLY REALLLLLY BIG.

print it out on A0 – infact print it out on 2 A0′s and stick it to the wall.
When you talk about it give your audience pens and pencils and ask them to draw on the diagram. Stick postit notes onto the diagram to highlight certain points.

Should I invest in my Next Generation Network?

As more and more entertainment is offered over the internet, the importance that the consumer places on the TV offering will diminish. The primary decision will be on bandwidth; how much, what price, is it capped, what reputation does the telco have. The global recession will mean that in the short term it is likely that infrastructure investment will be cut and will only happen where cost can be recovered from operational expenditure. Longer term investment must primarily focus on providing higher bandwidth, rather than complex telephony or TV features.

Doing busines in the down turn

Recent econoimic events show that our analysis of the past is based on data that contains hidden, larger scale, forces. We have been measuring the waves, without noticing that the tide.The historic data does not include events of the magnitude of the recession we are about to enter.

Neither do the records of your competitors.

the profile of number of opportunities to value is indicative of the current economic state of the world.

The tender process is only of value within a small range, some jobs are so small that they can be signed off without tender, some are so big that other mechanisms such as M&A come into play.

It is believed that the frequency of opportunities of specific value is a bell curve with a peak around £5M.

The integral of this curve shows the expenditure. Points of inflection on the curve show changes in organisational changes in bidding behaviour and the legislation controls that exist around it.

Business angels and venture capitalists within many industries are actively looking for companies to invest in who have a direct revenue stream from the consumer especially where the product is very low cost and entertainment or savings related. However they are looking for a large number of small investments.

Governments are trying to create jobs and stay the economy by investment in big public projects and defence projects.

Companies that were planning medium scale changes are reconsidering.

They are asking themselves “whats the smallest change I can get away with?”

the profile of tenders will change.