Ed Dowding

1. MAKE IT RELEVANT. Identify a broad social trend that aligns with your core competencies and the values of your culture.
2. MAKE IT STICK. With that trend, identify your customer and find something that they really need and can become integrated into their lifestyle.
3. MAKE IT WASY TO ADOPT. Enhance an existing behvaiour rather than try to change human behaviour.
4. MAKE IT MEMORABLE. Make your solution special, differentiated and the key selling features easy to understand.
5. MAKE IT THE BEST IT CAN BE. Don’t ship unless customers love it and they can tell you why they would pay for it.
6. MAKE IT EASY TO FIND. Change the rules of distribution. Take your product to where your customers are rather than where products are traditionally sold.
7. MAKE IT EASY TO SHARE. Never forget that your customers are your sales force. Never forget the power of buzz.
8. MAKE IT GREEN. Ensure you are a brand with a social conscience. Your effort and conviction here ensures a deeper emotional connection and a reason for someone to advocate for the relationship and the brand.
9. MAKE IT FUN. Give both your culture and your product personality. Brighten their life and make it glow. If they are pleased to see you every day, both your customers are employees will be loyal advocates of your brand and the mission you are on.
10. MAKE IT PROFITABLE. Test all assumptions over and over again. God conservative on sales and high on expenses, and create a business model what you believe with conviction will work and get everyone to buy in and feel ownership in that model. Together you will win.

    Source: http://boomboombrands.com/ten-steps-to-big-ideas-that-win/

Here’s some figures for renewable power generation in 2006:

• 62.9% – Austria
• 48.7% – Sweden
• 29.9% – Portugal
• 17.1% – Slovak Republic
• 19.2% – Romania
• 17% – Denmark
• 12.4% – France
• 4.6% - UK
  

In November 2009, Spain generated 53% of its demand from wind alone last week (it was a bit windy). So if you’re from the UK, be embarrassed: we’re getting our bottoms kicked by Hans, Abba and the Siesta Monkeys.

Since so little seems to influence peoples’ thinking about energy and the environment, I wonder if world cup style national pride could be leveraged to get some action here? The protests about petrol prices would be that much more potent if the protesters were aware that José Siesta and Pierre Le Grenouille were loading up their electric cars for a quarter of the price, whilst also benefiting from much cleaner air, having to work less since they’re paying less, and generally being far better served by their governments.

There’s also the angle that the UK seems to be slated to have a lot of nuclear. All this is planned by EDF, a French company. Nuclear, as we know, has astronomical decommissioning costs which are never budgeted for so are not fairly compared to renewables whose decommissioning costs are tiny. So it’s not a massive leap – certainly one the Daily Mail would be adept at – to suspect that France is deliberately hobbling the UK with nuclear, whilst also increasing its own competitive advantage by investing in wind power.

If energy prices effect where industry locates in the free market of Europe, shouldn’t we be treating this as a national economic welfare issue?

So ‘competitiveness’ and ‘employment levels’ join national security, economy, and ethics and morality as reasons to invest every penny we have in renewable energy generation.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if you have low-cost, clean energy almost every other problem vanishes.

Murdoch is like a redneck with an AK-47 shooting wildly into a herd of BBC elephants. “These slow good for nothing beasts! Stomp all the grass for my cattle! HAHAHA!! BANG! BANG!! Take that, Dumbo!”

But that’s all just opinions and metaphor. Numbers, let’s look at numbers. These put some perspective to Murdoch’s power grab.

So to recap:

1. Murdoch makes more money, has lower costs, and makes crappier programmes.
2. The BBC is owned by the public and run in the public interest, creates plenty of creative employment opportunities, raises the statesman-like esteem of the UK internationally, and costs considerably less.

Hmm. Pipe down, James. Grow up and stop trying to undermine the value of what we have built so that you and your barrow-boy friends can pedal more mediocre banalities and stuff your already overflowing pockets with just that little bit more cash.

Sources: BBC HYS, Today Programme, 2 Mar 2010, Yahoo Finance