Posts from — January 2012

Growing numbers of people are deciding "that living alone is their best option," reports Daniel Akst in a Wall Street Journal review of Going Solo by Eric Klinenberg (1/28/12). In the United States alone, "31 million people — one in seven adults — live alone, accounting for a remarkable 28 percent of households. That’s up from just 9 percent in 1950." This is happening, says Eric, partly because more people are deciding that family life is not all it’s cracked up to be and having roommates isn’t all that appealing.

But the decision to live alone is also "a luxury good that, like the purchase of a car or the increased consumption of meat, flourishes in societies that have become affluent." Eric also says that women, especially, "have come to see what a heavy burden they bear in families … Other forces include the communications revolution, which allows a kind of virtual connectedness" and "mass urbanization, which enables solo birds of a feather to flock together in neighborhoods."

Then there’s the growing size of the average home, with kids often having their own rooms, which may contribute to "the increased value we place on autonomy." Eric believes these trends are "only going to become more prevalent as … the developing world grows more affluent." However, he also notes that "heavy debts and low birth rates … could lead to a decline in the affluence that makes living alone possible." It’s also possible that because "humans are social animals … more of us may yet discover that living with kin or even close friends has advantages beyond mere affordability."

Lloyd Kahn’s Tiny Homes: Simple Shelters is "a quirky, photo-rich book that preaches the benefits" of scaling back, reports Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in the Wall Street Journal (1/30/12). "It’s about fantasy," says Jonas Kyle, co-owner of Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers. "The appeal is that secretly most people would like to be in the country building their own little house … there’s a builder in everyone."

Tiny Homes is actually one of several books "capturing the joys of shoebox living." Others include Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts, by Derek Diedricksen. Then there’s Living in a Nutshell by Janet Lee as well as the forthcoming Handmade Houses, by Richard Olsen, which champions homes made of "driftwood, boulders and even old wine vats."

Patricia Bostelman of Barnes & Noble says the titles "reflect that people are interested in living more simply … The economy declined and people are finding ways to downsize." Or, as Lloyd Kahn explains: "What I’m saying with this new book is don’t get a mortgage, don’t pay high rent and don’t go into debt … If you’re young enough or you’re just starting out and don’t want to work 12 hours a day, here’s an alternative."

Below-the-line agencies are rising to the top. By Paul Kramer. In the past, when asked what their biggest asset was, marketers would invariably reply, “our brand.” In today’s environment, you are just as likely to get the answer, “our customers,” defined as both retailers and their shoppers.

Yet surprisingly, in today’s highly visible world of brand building and mass advertising, the reality is that traditional, above-the-line agencies often lose focus on the most important part of the equation — the customer. The better agencies tend to be adept at growing brands while also building customer relationships. Below-the-line agencies, where the focus is on targeted, direct and measurable customer interactions, are well-positioned to meet today’s challenges, and tomorrow’s … read >>

The most enduring companies aren’t afraid to eat their young, reports Spencer E. Ante in the Wall Street Journal (1/7/12). IBM, for instance, survived by "selling off the company’s vaunted personal computer business in 2004, before PCS has been largely commoditized." As then CEO Samuel J. Palmisano put it: "We’ve lasted 100 years because we never limited ourselves to a view of a particular product." HP, by comparison, doubled down in the PC business by acquiring Compaq, and "was slow to catch on to the growing importance of business software."

Apple, of course, bought a new lease on life with the iPod, but later cannibalized it with the introduction of the iPhone. More recently, it "risked cannibalizing its PC and notebook business by launching its new iPad tablet computer." In both cases, it paid off: "In the quarter that ended in September, iPhones and related products and services accounted for 39 percent of Apple’s revenue and have positioned it as a leader in the fast-growing mobile space." Its iPad business "now accounts for 24 percent of company revenue."

Both examples are well worth noting, given that "only a tiny fraction" of corporations "reach the age of 40, according to a study of more than six million firms cited in a research paper by management professors Charles I. Stubbart and Michael B. Knight." James W. Breyer, a partner at Facebook and board member at Walmart, meanwhile says he has noticed "far more similarities than differences between the top visionary executives," while also noting another important factor: luck. "We tend to overestimate how much we know," he says. "Luck plays an enormous role in every investment or corporate story of success."

MIT Media Lab scientists have developed a camera that can capture the speed of light, reports John Markoff in the New York Times (12/13/11). This technology "scans and captures light," and enables the scientists to "record about 500 frames in just under a nanosecond, or a billionth of a second." The image itself, of light passing through liquids and objects, is captured "in less than two trillionths of a second." That’s super-fast, obviously, but what it does, in effect, is create a slow-motion movie (video).

"It is so much slow motion you can see the light itself move," says Andreas Velten, a member of the MIT Media Lab team. "This is the speed of light: there is nothing in the universe that moves faster." That sounds impossible, but not nearly as nuts as the project’s original objective, which was to create a camera that could see around corners. The idea was that "by capturing reflected light and then computing the paths of the returning light" it would be possible to build "images coming from rooms that would otherwise not be directly visible."

Ramesh Raskar, who leads the project, suggests some intriguing applications. "Imagine if you have this in your phone 10 years from now," he says. "You will be able to go to your supermarket and tell if your fruit is ripe." The breakthrough is the ability to create pictures of "information that until now had been rendered only as data and charts." Dr. Raskar calls the project "femto photography," using the "term for quadrillionths of a second," and admits that the potential is a mind-bender. "We’re still trying to get our heads around what this means," he says, "because no one has been able to see the world in this way before."

An "organic molecule found naturally in the body, particularly in the brain," is "popping up in beverages and dietary supplements," reports Laura Johannes in the Wall Street Journal (1/24/12). While not approved by the FDA as a prescription drug, Citicoline is prescribed by some doctors in other countries "to help regenerate the brain after a stroke." Some scientists also think "citicoline speeds up formation of brain cell membranes and may boost production of neurotransmitters essential to brain function."

However, "clinical trials found citicoline was no more effective than a placebo." That is plenty good enough for makers of Nawgan, a new drink that contains 250 milligrams of Cognizin, a brand name for citicoline, as marketed by Kyowa Hakko USA. Nawgan’s slogan is, "What you drink is what you think," and its "website invites consumers to track their mental performance with an online memory and focus test." Cognizin is also part of the mix in the 5-Hour Energy Drink from Living Essentials, and is sold in capsule form by Healthy Origins.

Citicoline is believed to be safe, although some report "occasional mild gastrointestinal upset." A study sponsored by Kyowa "of 60 healthy women found a monthlong regime of daily doses of citcoline resulted in improved attention and fewer errors on a cognitive test compared with a placebo." Another test, on 2,000 people, sponsored by another citicoline maker, is due out in May. Meanwhile, Dr. Gary Small of the Longevity Center (who has no vested interest) says citicoline "might be worth a try" but recommends "exercise and a diet rich in antioxidants" to boost brain power.

Cognitive psychologist Gary Marcus "investigates the intersection between neuroscience and music" in his latest book, Guitar Zero, reports Bruce Headlam in the New York Times (1/26/12). Gary’s interest was both personal and professional. At age 38, he decided he wanted to learn to play the guitar; as a scientist he wanted to explore the "long-held tenet" that the older we grow the harder it gets to acquire new skills. This may be especially true of guitar skills, given the instrument’s quirky, non-linear bent (e.g., "the guitar has the same notes at different frets along different strings").

The challenge was especially acute for Gary, who claims to have no musical talent. But he did have a year-long sabbatical from New York University, during which he dedicated himself to learning to play guitar, using a $74 Yamaha acoustic and various instruction books. Scientifically, he was interested in "how the brain can essentially rewire itself to make up for deficits caused by stroke, trauma or even a non-existent sense of rhythm." Musically, he was mainly interested in learning how to improvise, as opposed to learning specific songs or riffs.

Learning scales and improvising versus learning songs and copying actually represent the two "modes of mental processing at the heart" of Gary’s book. The former requires "a tool kit of rules that can be applied in new situations" while the latter is more about data mining, or "dredging up material from a vast store of knowledge." Gary’s interest is "in how the human mind toggles between the two approaches." Gary’s goal now is "to move beyond both and play from emotion, or as he said, ‘from the brain stem.’" He confesses to being mostly analytical as a guitarist but adds that he’s "not sure if that’s a limitation of me as a musician or as a human being."

The "cultural context" of the Glock, one of the best-selling handguns in America, is captured in a new book by Paul M. Barrett, reports Carol Memmott in USA Today (1/5/12). Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun, offers a “succinct and fascinating study of a weapon created by an Austrian businessman who, before he sold guns, made curtain rods and door hinges.” Gaston Glock created the pistol that “would become the weapon of choice for the Austrian Army” in 1982. It featured a “large-capacity spring-action magazine,” and “its quick reload, its reliability and its accuracy” soon attracted the interest of “law enforcement agencies around the world.”

As the Glock became a favorite of US police departments, “the gun-buying public followed suit. And like countless other consumer fads … the Glock, with its black matte finish and boxy shape, found its way into the popular culture.” Bruce Willis lauded its firepower” in 1990′s Die Hard 2 and in 1998′s US Marshals, Tommy Lee Jones told Robert Downey Jr. to get rid of his Taurus PT945 and ‘get yourself a Glock and lose that nickel-plated sissy pistol’.”

The Glock went on to be featured in rap lyrics and videos, while “authors like Elmore Leonard dropped Glocks into their novels. Prime-time TV cops began carrying them.” And then there’s real life: Saddam Hussein had Glock on him “when he was pulled out of his hidey-hole in 2003,” and when six people where killed and Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was injured last year, the gunman used a Glock. The book also includes a biography of Gaston Glock as well as “how the business missteps of Smith & Wesson, Colt, Beretta and other gunmakers helped Glock roll over all of them.”

A new book posits that a Jewish journalist should get credit for inventing the Volkswagen Beetle, reports Phil Patton in the New York Times (1/20/12). “The Extraordinary Life of Josef Ganz” by Paul Schilperoord “provides a picture of the automotive culture in Germany between the wars, with many, small, struggling companies.” It also challenges the “standard history — that Hitler hired Ferdinand Porsche … to design and build his Strength Through Joy car.” Instead it tells the story of a “people’s car” thought leader who “was arrested, chased from Germany and nearly airbrushed out of history.”

Paul says that the concept of a "people’s car" in Germany in the 1930s was almost a cliche, not unlike "personal computer" in 1980s America. So, there were lots of people pursuing the idea, including Josef Ganz, who wrote for a magazine called Motor-Kritik and "advocated a people’s car with an air-cooled engine placed at the rear, based on a backbone-type frame and using independent suspension at both ends." He favored a design advanced by a friend, Paul Jaray, “whose shape resembled what is now known as the Beetle.”

According to the book, "Ganz was the only one arguing for a combination of tubular chassis, rear engine, streamlined body and independent suspension — a formula that would produce a light, affordable, family car." Instead of thanking him, the Gestapo arrested him and threw him out of Germany. In 1965, Ganz gave an interview in which he claimed credit for inventing the Volkswagen, however lots of people were working on similar ideas in the ’30s. "The Beetle was an accumulation from many ideas and from so many people," says Paul Shilperoord, "that it is impossible to say one person was the originator of it."

Principles and practices for better branding. By Ayo Seligman and Kay Whitchurch. We hear it every day: Everything is changing. Social media, globalization and climate change are just a few of the powerful — and complex — forces at work in our lives. Not only are people more connected, with constant access to a world of opinion mixed with fact, but they’re also feeling less confident, lacking control over everything from home to work to politics.

Nearly every business category is more crowded, too. The grocery aisle was once the most salient example of brand proliferation. Now consumer electronics, fashion, entertainment, travel, and even finance boast a dizzying array of product and service brands … read >>