Todd Sattersten :: Astronaut Projects

There is Alot in a Name

There has been a trend for some time that companies want to shorten their names. Kentucky Fried Chicken took took too long to say and didn't sound very health. Federal Express went with what all of their customer where saying - FedEx.

In the Milwaukee market, Norwest Airlines has been trying to muscle in on Midwest Airlines. In all of their radio and billboard advertising, they refer to themselves at NWA and that you should visit them at NWA.org.

I think another group already owns the letters NWA. I am thinking of the pioneering rap group N.W.A. Now, whenever I read or hear one of Northwest's ads, I don't think about flying to one of their locations. I think about my college days and their music.

Did anyone in marketing at NWA consider that?

People Want To Spend More

Americans have a lot of money burning a hole in their pockets and companies that give consumers a way to spend it are prospering. People are looking for higher quality alternatives. This article from HBS Working Knowledge talks about the companies taking advantage of people looking to trade up.

The Low Rumble

Here in Milwaukee, you can hear the low rumble of motorcycles - alot of motorcycles. We are expected 200,000 people in town this weekend for Harley-Davidson's 100th Birthday. As I was driving home on I-43 tonight, there were people on the overpasses with banners and American flags welcoming riders into town. I thought that was pretty cool.

And talk about a brand. The return of HD from near extinction is the stuff of business legend. Consider how far they have come. How many brands can draw 200,000 of their loyalists on a pilgrimage across a country?

The party is going on for four days. You can't find a hotel within 100 miles of Milwaukee. The weekend ends with a concert on the lakefront. The act is being kept a secret until concert time. Rumors are flying from Springteen to the Stones to the Eagles. Nobody knows.

The convention bureau estimates the economic impact of the anniversary at $94 million for Milwaukee and the surrounding communities. Wow.

Happy Birthday, Harley!

Essential #8 - FC Now

If you are a regular reader, you might see I am a little partial to the Fast Company camp. I talked about FC Now a couple of weeks ago. It has now moved to the top of my blog list. If I don't get through anything else, I want to make sure I read the daily posts from FC.

Add FC Now to your regular diet and you will feel alot better.

Lots of Ideas

There are millions ideas out there. It seems the more that I look the more I find them.

John A. Bryne posted a quote on FC Now last week from Henry Ford's autobiography:

An idea is not necessarily good because it is old, or necessarily bad because it is new, but if an old idea works, then the weight of the evidence is all in its favor. Ideas are of themselves extraordinarily valuable, but an idea is just an idea. Almost any one can think up an idea. The thing that counts is developing it into a practical product.

Ah yes, the practical product.

My latest idea came from from a day trip to Princeton, WI. The town was recently highlighted in Milwaukee Magazine as a great day trip from the city. We drove up on Saturday and found a wonderful, eclectic downtown shopping district. I am not sure I have seen a concentration of wonderful shops in such a small area.

I think they are really building something there. I had a chance to talk with some of the business owners. Most didn't have any experience in retail before opening there shops and the growth of the district has largely been by word of mouth.

I saw this walking through town:

They have an untapped brand staring them right in the face. This logo is painted on the side of an building about a block off the main street. A small microbrewery would go great with the upscale shopping district. I know I just talked about the wonderful microbreweries there are in Wisconsin, and it might be a little crowded for another. Maybe it starts as a resturant and the beer made on contract with another brewery. I don't know if the foot traffic would support it, but on the other hand, I will often go out of my way to visit at a local microbrewery.

Like I said, it was another idea among many. Is there a practical product?

More Magazines Blog

Off the Movable Type Spotlights, I found Fresh Inc. For some reason, I didn't immediately associate the name with Inc. Magazine.

First, I should have guessed that if Fast Company was rolling out a blog (check out FC Now) that Inc. would be right there with it. Gruner + Jahr publish both magazines as well as ym, Parents, and Family Circle.

Second, naming is important and I am not sure they picked the right one for the blog. I keep thinking "Fresh Incorporated". I would suspect that it was some company selling fruits, vegetables, or some other perishable items. I think the name needed to lead with Inc. or be used in such a way that I would say "ink" in my head.

I think Fresh Inc. is worth checking out and seeing if it matches your reading diet.

Maybe it is more than one thing

This comes on the heels of my posting yesterday about the need to do one thing well.

Some folks from Havard say you have to do four things well and two of four additional things well. What Really Works: The 4+2 Formula for Sustained Business Success came out in May 2003. Under their equation, you must instill a strong sense of strategy, execution, culture, and organization. You also have to do two of the following four well: acquire talent, develop leadership, foster innovation, or grow successfully through M&A. They also say they have research to back it all up.

The August issue of Inc. Magazine has a slightly longer review of the book.

Find one thing to measure

After the last two postings, I found another revelant article in the September issue of Inc. Columnist Norm Brodsky says it is important to find one thing that you can measure to take your business' blood pressure.

I believe every business has magic numbers. A restaurant owner I know can predict his evening's receipts by the length of time customers have to wait for a table at 8:30pm. My friend Jack Stack, the father of open-book management, told me about a guy with a gear-making company who can determine his sales from the weight of the gears that have been shipped. Not the dollars. Not the orders. Not the number or types of gears. The weight.

I find myself measuring more things at our business. In the past, we looked at the sales number at month-end to see if we are doing well. We now track the number of quotes we do every week as a leading indicator and the amount of orders taken each week as health indicator. I am not sure either of those is our magic number, because of the varying timeframe for a quote to turn into an order and an order to turn into a sale.

A Story About Change

I just liked the story.

Thanks, Heath.

You Need to Do One Thing Well

This thought has been crossing my mind for a couple of weeks now. You hear this alot in business: Focus on one thing and do it better than anybody else.

I saw the Judy Girard, president of the Food Network, interviewed recently and she said you only need one show to make a cable network. For them, it has been the BAM brand of Emeril.

Brett Favre is the Green Bay Packers' one thing. Look at what he does when he is on the field. Favre just makes things happen (not to sound too much like John Madden). He has come from behind 23 times to win football games. As a Packer fan, you never feel that you are out of the game when he is on the field.

Inc. Magazine had an article in their June issue about Google's laser focus on one thing: web searches.

I am working on growing my business, and we come up on this question alot. Does this job fit well with what we are really good at? When we get outside of our "one thing", we seem to get ourselves into trouble - either in quality or profitablility. The answer has been to partner with others to gain additional capabilities (i.e. let's take what they are good at and also offer it to our customers). It has worked well.

What is your one thing?