I would love to open up a discussion on the most vicious economic myths of all time.

In the branding context, I believe the most tragic myth is that brands that are proprietorially owned by corporations or nationally governed (by people elected on short-term criteria) take the lead in assessing economic performance. What truly matters are the main sustainable agents of productivity and people's one chance per lifetime to make a difference through learning unique skills and caring deeply in the ways that human beings are better at processing than computers will ever be.

I have started two new blogs which seek to demonstrate that the following compound far more human value that corporations or nations:

Blog 1 -the authentic wisdom of love for other people that flows through families over generations

Blog 2 -the collaborative social networks where people open space and creatively converse which are as yet best served by cities in every way that these are self-organised around an architecture that puts human usability and happiness first

Once we wholly value these 2 productivity systems, my third new blog invites you

Blog 3- to MAP! whether corporations and nations wish to interconnect sustainably - in which case let's keep them, or NOT in which case let's devalue them as fast as we did to Andersen. That is the stick . The carrot with the 3rd new blog is that networking offers the most exciting time in the hisstory of our world to multiply everything human beings value.

As well as these new blogs, I am trying to help any city university to develop a high level year-round leadership mentor space such as this one my kindred learning spirit Peter Lewis has spent much of the last 3 years assembling. posted by ..., 11:10 PM  permalink

Training course in caring about tenants, sponsored by Ing USA

Customers can learn a lot about how to make the world worse for everyone by companies committed to systemically destroy customer loyalty. Here’s a case from Ing USA involving 1750$ per month condo rentals in the Maryland area.

Make sure any renovation a tenants asks for will be done in the least convenient way possible (consequence customers don’t bother)

Always offer new tenants better rates and renovated apartments than old ones.

Increase turnover of residents including more and more short-term ones so that communal safety etc declines
posted by ..., 12:27 AM  permalink

Sounds like a jolly good idea to me. From current newsletter of superb work of Dana Blankenhorn http://www.a-clue.com


Many people assume spam can't be fought, that it all comes from overseas. A recent study by Ciphertrust indicates it can be fought, that in fact those foreign addresses are being spoofed by U.S. spam "kingpins." (http://www.corante.com/mooreslore/archives/005662.html). As spam becomes more seasonal, its dirtiest secret is also being revealed, which is that honest brand names are paying the bills, refusing to police their channels (http://www.corante.com/mooreslore/archives/005725.html). This suggests that a strategy of suing the brands advertised by spam, starting with the drug companies, and forcing them to police their channels could have a real impact.

What those drug companies, and others, have done is to substitute the Law of Necessity for the common law. They have thrown ethics to the winds. They obey the law only in its letter, and then only when the cost of defying the law is certain to exceed the benefit. posted by ..., 12:54 PM  permalink

Influenced partly by The Mancurian Candidate , Members of CBO Association held a straw poll. If we indexed the global goodwill of American at 100 in 1999, what’s the index summer 2004? – our average estimate 55. The world values relationships with America at little more than half that it did 5 year ago. Your votes on whether that is an over- or under- estimate welcome.

If Americans want to learn or lead from this, then they should look beyond one administration’s record to their whole system of how power drives people. These days it is possible to analyse from the way that a large organisation communicates and measures itself whether its purpose is sustainability or volatility. Sustainability means that people of all kinds (customers, pension investors, employees, societies worldwide) gain productively from a loyal relationship over time, whereas volatility means that most people lose as a few speculators profiteer investing and then shorting the company while its unique purpose erodes so that progressing humanly most vital stuff becomes a dream rather than reality of organisation.

Of course, America has some fine organisations that don’t want to be governed by the volatility brigade. We invite them to benchmark with other purposeful organisations at Sustainability Clubs being formed in Collaborative Knowledge Cities. It is quite possible in a networking age to go beyond zero-sum economics. But, as time-lined by our economic thinktank since 1984, what the world needs now –if the early 21st Century is to be a time of mutual growing up rather than wanton destruction - is to get on with inspiring reality-making projects like 30000 ways to reduce global poverty rather than believing the any locality where people are in deep misery can be resolved solely by sending in the big guns. A way for America to turn its vicious spin around and start leading back to over 100 is to be seen to be playing a transparent and heroic part in such projects. Power and trustworthy sustainability need to compound together if the future for your children and mine is to be a humanly promising one.

The networking age was always going to put us 6+ billion peoples at the crossroads of sustainability or volatility. Lurking isn’t a sensible option any longer. If we leave systems of world trade to spin the way they are heading, volatility – and going below zero-sum economics everywhere - is what the current version of the globalisation system is leading us to. Don't you think?
posted by ..., 6:42 AM  permalink

Can you help us by contributing to a diversity of reviews of this brand new genre? Comments form filmgoers most welcome, meanwhilse some bookmarks:
MCan 1,,2 ,,$$$ F9/11 1,, $$$ theC 1,,
posted by ..., 12:46 PM  permalink

...for this kind review of our book Beyond-Branding

Beyond Compare… Edited by Nicholas Ind, this superb book features contributions from Sicco Van Gelder, Simon Anholt and Thomas Gad to name but a few. What unites them all is a common purpose – greater brand transparency and integrity.

With major corporate scandals and easier access to information, the public are more informed and unhappy about the power global brands wield and the way they operate than ever before. This has manifested itself in the high-profile anti-capitalist movement and boycotts of companies deemed to be operating unethically. The contributors believe that mistrust of corporate power will only intensify, causing enormous damage to individual brand reputations and brand promises everywhere. They call for brands to move beyond the narrow and short-term approach of meeting immediate shareholder demands, and move towards an approach that meets the needs of all stakeholders.

‘If branding is to have continued relevance it needs to have a wider social and economic perspective beyond the needs of individual companies and their products and services. It needs to be based on trust, value, openness and integrity. It needs to meet and fulfil the needs, wants and aspirations of people and organisations. It needs to do what it says on its tin and be completely transparent about how it is achieved. To do so the businesses, organisations and governments that create and promote brands need to operate in a new way, based on transparency of operation, the creation of trust and authenticity of purpose and delivery.’

The various authors each tackle a different aspect of brands and branding. Together they cover the importance of a human focus; brand authenticity; the role of leaders in defining and delivering the brand; the value of employee-led engagement; new approaches to valuing intangible assets; moving from seller-centric to buyer-centric marketing; creating brands through customer collaboration; and the meaning of brand sustainability.

The result is an absorbing book that really gets to grips with the challenges brands face today. Although written by different authors, the chapters sit coherently with one another, and the reader benefits from the different yet not divergent views expressed. Altogether the contributors deliver a powerful argument for brands to transform themselves and the world in which we live.

(We're not expecting to be loved everywhere - if you see a love review or a hate review , please tell us the bookmark)

posted by ..., 2:40 PM  permalink