In 2002 I was a very green PR intern for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League. One of my jobs with the team was to give VIP tours to celebrities and other dignitaries. Typically, the tours were for friends and family of the players, and my main role was to get them as quickly as possible from the VIP boxes to the dressing room through a labyrinth of stairs, doors and hallways. So, despite the somewhat fancy title, VIP tours were typically non-descript. Except Once During a game in 2002 when the Canucks were playing the Carolina Hurricanes, I was asked to assist a guest. When I arrived at the box, I was greeted by four very serious...
A month ago Peter Diamandis wrote an interesting post on disrupting the Real Estate market. It caught my eye mainly because I'm in the process of selling my old house and buying a new one. Diamandis paints a wonderful picture of being able to use Virtual Reality to browse real estate, and see what your future home might look like with renovations. The thing is, as much as real estate could benefit from Virtual Reality and other virtual experiential marketing, that isn't the most pressing issue in the process as I see it. The biggest issue is that from start to finish, buying a house is almost universally regarded as a terrible customer experience. You Need a Sales Funnel as...
Exactly two years ago Marissa Mayer made headlines with Yahoo's policy that required its employees to come to the office instead of working from home. A raging debate ensued, and was largely focused on collaboration vs. productivity, and flexibility vs. innovation. The surprising omission from the group was economics. Working in an office building costs workers and employers an incredible amount of money. Here's how it breaks down as I see it: Employer Costs: Two years ago, the average cost of office space in the United States was just over $23 a square foot per quarter. A fairly modest office space for an employee is about 125 square feet, which means that companies typically pay about $2,875 a quarter for...
About four years ago I read "The 4-Hour Work-Week" by Tim Ferriss, and was enthralled. The book promises to show you how to obtain financial freedom, visit exotic places, and have loads of fun while doing it... sort of like channeling your inner Richard Branson. Sign me up! A friend of mine who recommended the book said "I don't recommend doing everything he says, but some of it is really good." I soon learned that this was sage advice. Join the New Rich? For those unfamiliar, the tagline of the book is "escape the 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich." In other words, the book promises the ultimate in autonomy. No more daily grind, do whatever you want,...
We interrupted my five-year-old son’s birthday dinner so that a potential buyer could look at the rental we’re living in. The agent that’s selling our place and his assistant pressured us into saying yes. My wife and I both came out of the interaction pretty convinced that we had lost a battle on behalf of our family, and our son, and were really upset. It was a classic win/lose scenario… or was it? In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey insists that there’s no such thing as a win/lose in any negotiation. It’s either a win/win, or a lose/lose. If it’s the case that both sides come out of a negotiation with a win, then...
