Fresh Perspectives
Principal & CEO
Darrel Rhea, CEO of Cheskin, has spent the last 25 years working on the front lines of innovation with the world’s top corporations -- helping them understand their customers, their needs and their experiences -- and marrying the best of design, strategy and market research into a solid business proposition.
Featured in Malcolm Gladwell’s New York Times bestseller Blink, Rhea is one of America's top strategic design consultants. His mission is to help companies create products, services and brands that serve both the consumer and the bottom line – and to build value by generating experiences that are meaningful to consumers and profitable to producers, shareholders and investors.
Rhea is a frequent speaker to senior executives at U.S. and international conferences and at leading corporations including Microsoft, Pepsi, Herman Miller, Kraft, Motorola, General Mills, Andersen Windows, Procter & Gamble, 3M, Pillsbury, Frito-Lay, AT&T, and Hewlett-Packard.
As a BusinessWeek Online columnist and in his new book, Making Meaning, Darrel pushes the envelope of innovation in design, business strategy, marketing, and customer experience. At the heart of his work is a clear-cut and simple message of “making meaning” through relentless attention to the people you serve.
4 January 2008
I was corresponding with Reid Walker, VP of Communications at Lenovo this week. Reid is a certified global guy, emailing me from around the world including exotic places like Katmandu and Lhasa. (I’m jealous.) He is writing a manifesto for companies attempting to go global on Changethis.com. Lenovo is a unique company -- the first truly global company to emerge from an emerging market.
I was riffing off of his ideas, thinking about what my version of the 5 most important principles for driving success:
WorldBrand: Build a global brand promise (a value proposition that is truly scaleable – you know that most everyone starts with a local brand that gets extended. Start with what is truly meaningful to humans, base your positioning on that, then develop the plan for the global extensions at the outset.)
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
20 December 2007
Today is an exciting day in the evolution of Cheskin. By joining with Added Value’s powerful network, we’re adding resources that will allow us to continue our quest for leadership in the consumer-led innovation consulting business. I’m thrilled to be gaining hundreds of colleagues from around the world to collaborate with, to challenge our thinking, and to and have fun with.
For years we have been telling ourselves and our clients that “change is good.” You just can’t innovate without change. This change will assure that we will be growing in ways that will provide greater value to our clients, while honoring our organization’s culture and values. If you want to know more about the exciting new improvements at Cheskin, call or email me!
Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
13 December 2007
I attended an intimate event on innovation by I L O Institute (Innovation in Large Organizations) yesterday with several senior executives responsible for innovation in their organizations. Most of the day was dedicated to group discussion on the subject of innovation, but we also had Dr. Henry Chesbrough (the author of “Open Innovation”) speak at lunch.
Henry is a smart, articulate guy who has looked deeply at some specific aspects of innovation. He talked about the problem of getting "false negatives" from innovation processes (where commercially viable ideas wash out, only to be picked up by other organizations and made successful) and "false positives" (where bad ideas take on a life of their own and don’t get killed until too late). We have certainly seen a lot of examples of both instances happening to Cheskin’s clients, but what are the causes?...
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
10 October 2007
Innovation is still a sizzling topic, evidenced by the dozens of speeches requested of me by a wide range of industry groups this year around the world and which I delivered to keenly interested audiences. I have presented to many large groups of CEOs, CMOs, CIOs, Designers, Design Researchers, and others in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and beyond. After a hundred thousand air miles and scores of conferences and hundreds of personal dialogues with the individuals attending….What have I learned?
CEOs want the outcomes of innovation. They don’t want design, they don’t want process, they don’t really want a culture of innovation. They want growth. Topline, bottomline, organic growth. They want the financial markets to love them. If you are looking to get internal support for your innovation initiative, you had better be in that business.
CMOs want love too. They want innovation that is recognized and associated with their brands, and they want their brands loved. Your innovation initiative had better move and inspire customers.
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
15 September 2007
I have been attending many international conferences this year, and have traveled modestly, but Summer Davos has been a very different experience for me. Most international conferences are actually regional conferences with some representation from a few other counties. This conference is GLOBAL and has caused me to think a little differently about the world and being American.
I have been in workshops or conversations with business or government leaders from around the world. For example, my last workshop included 3 Americans and people from Pakistan, United Emirates, Afghanistan, India, France, Spain, China, Vietnam, Denmark, Russia, Bulgaria, Nigeria, and some others I can’t remember. Everyone here has an amazing story.
This is an interesting combination of United Nations (with heads of state and royalty waking around like the Queen of Jordon), first world establishment titans, (think Global Chairman of Citibank and hundreds like him), and emerging market leaders (mostly CEOs) with businesses with billions in revenue. Quite a powerful audience. With membership requiring in WEF costing tens of thousands of dollars, conference fees of more than ten thousand dollars, and the travel costs to get to Dalian China, everyone here is here for a reason. People are eager to engage, learn, and collaborate...
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Emerging Markets
by Darrel Rhea
15 September 2007
I have recently returned from China attending the World Economic Forum Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions (Summer Davos). Dalian is just one of many cities in China with 6 MILLION people that few Westerners have heard of. It is incredibly modern, clean, organized, up-scale. People compare it to San Francisco and Seattle. The scale is enormous, it goes on and on for miles in all directions. Most everything looks like it has been built within 15 years, most of it within 5 years.
As one of many presentations by world leaders at the conference the Premier of China, Wen Jiaboa, spoke. The most repeated words in his long talk were 1) harmonious, 2) innovation, 3) reform, and 4) balance. The pragmatism of the Chinese leadership is very clear, and they are very clear about their goals. They are supporting hyper growth of the economy (close to 10%) while trying to prevent over-heating of the market, dealing with social inequities, being accountable for the environment, preventing inflation, opening up to the world, promoting political reform, etc. Balance is the key word...
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Emerging Markets
by Darrel Rhea
8 July 2007
A startlingly different approach to business ethics and management is coming from an emerging market. How might the success of one man and his organization shift the standards of practice for global business?
Recently I attended a breakfast with Mr. R. (Gopal) Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director of Tata Sons, Chairman of Rallis India, and Vice-chairman of Tata Chemicals. While his company might not be a household name here in the US, it probably should be. With revenues of $22 billion, market cap of $60 billion, and 246,000 employees in 54 countries (including $3 billion revenue and 13,000 employees here in the US), Tata clearly deserves some respect.
My respect for Mr. Gopalakrishnan goes far beyond financial metrics. This man from India is a towering leader with clarity of mission and purpose that stands apart from any other CEO I have met or know of – and at the same time he is a humble, accessible, gentle human being who is willing to speak openly of the challenges and weaknesses of his organization. I found that combination of qualities and the unique approach of his many companies simply inspiring.
When have you heard the leader of a $22B global corporation say the following?...
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Emerging Markets
by Darrel Rhea
10 June 2007
The world of design is maturing at a very fast clip. I’ve keynoted several conferences outside the US this year (Copenhagen, Montreal, Auckland, Toronto, Sydney, etc.) and the growing importance of design around the globe is clear. Europe is ahead of the US in many ways, with Scandinavian countries leading in the theoretical understanding of customer-led innovation (but weaker on the systemized implementation of that understanding within organizations). Meanwhile, countries like New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, and China are aggressively adopting design practices to boost their competitiveness. It has been exciting to see the eagerness of all types of organizations to use design as a basis for innovation. This surge of interest will be pushing the field of customer-led innovation to innovate itself. After meeting literally thousands of business leaders and designers from around the world this year, I am excited not just with the enthusiasm for the field I love, but by the incredible work being done by practitioners around the world.
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
13 May 2007
The “Better by Design” conference held in Auckland, New Zealand last week was an impressive event. This was a conference aimed at CEOs to enroll them in adopting design thinking and tools to improve their bottom line. I keynoted this event, and was joined by a strong roster of international and local speakers. The New Zealand government is a primary sponsor (along with industry players) and is taking an enlightened approach to developing their economy’s competitiveness. They understand the importance of design in the export business and are actively supporting the country’s emerging design infrastructure. As evidence of that support, the Minister of the Economy and the Prime Minister each spoke passionately about design at the event.
What impressed me was that the conference organizers didn’t just talk about the importance of design thinking and user-based design tools – they applied these ideas effectively...
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
15 March 2007
This week’s Design Management Institute’s European Conference is focusing on the Metrics of Design. By any measure, the conference is well attended with over 150 designers, design managers, researchers, senior executives and others… gathering to be inspired and informed. It’s a tall order, though, to mix a conference cocktail of “design” and “metrics,” despite how critically thirsty our business public is to be reassured they are on the right path with developing products and services that will serve their customers well.
As keynote speaker on the first day, I felt responsible for communicating that there is a viable balance between intuitive and rational approaches. In fact, my position is that any company needs both to succeed in creating and communicating products and services that are meaningful to its customers.
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Innovation & Design
| Methods & Techniques
by Darrel Rhea
9 February 2007
We have all been part of great workshops, work sessions, meetings, and presentations. We were discussing what the “design principles” are for creating a satisfying experience for a workshop.
My personal experience suggests that the best sessions move beyond cognitively sensible presentations of abstract ideas….to an experience that is personal, emotionally engaging, active and conversational. I’m bored when I am just an observer or participant in someone else’s gig. I start caring when I take responsibility as an author to the solution, when I start experimenting and prototyping, and when I engage in dialogue about it.
This is why meetings and presentations disguising as work sessions fall flat. They shouldn’t be about us showing off and getting intellectual acceptance of our ideas. It is about our clients doing the heavy lifting, using the insights we provide and applying their creativity. That is a huge paradigm shift for many of us in the design, research and consulting worlds. It means that it is about facilitating others, not what we produce but what they produce with our insights.
And that is a performance art.
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Methods & Techniques
by Darrel Rhea
23 September 2006
To say that “Innovation” has become a buzz word in media is just the least of it. Major business publications – magazines, books, and online publications -- are full of why businesses should pay attention to innovation, what it is, how to make it happen, and who is responsible. But I wish that authors, journalists and pundits would make a sharper distinction between “innovation” and “invention.”
Invention is about solving problems in novel ways. However, that doesn’t mean that the solution is necessarily beneficial, either to the consumer or to the company that worked hard (or not so hard) to create it. There are hundreds of thousands of inventions that never even make it to the market, and many thousands that do get there but don’t last, for good cause. Despite their seductive novelty, inventions often don’t achieve business goals for two reasons: they don’t solve a meaningful or relevant problem, or they solve a problem and don’t do it in a meaningful way.
Innovation is about generating improved utility that really matters to people, and this in turn creates value for them. Consumers will gravitate to these products and services, and the subsequent consumer preference, price flexibility and loyalty, results in significant competitive advantage & economic rewards for the seller. Both the customer and the manufacturer get tangible benefits.
Why is this distinction between invention and innovation important?
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
4 July 2006
Jack Trout has long been a hero of mine, after all, he was writing on branding when I was in high school in the 60’s. But there comes a time when pioneers not only loose their leadership edge, they start looking antiquated. While Trout has introduced or popularized scores of ideas that have influenced how we think of branding, his current thinking is muddled and misses sound marketing basics he has developed such a reputation for.
In his current blog, he questions the value or importance of a brand’s emotional resonance. Trout’s old school positioning is focused on creating differentiation on the basis of functional and economic experiences, and he rejects emotional experiences as providing real value. What is he thinking?
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Meaningful Experience
by Darrel Rhea
18 May 2006
I wonder if it was coincidental that our friend Dick Buchanan, Professor of Design and Head of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University presented his post office manual project at the 2nd Road - Bain - Cheskin Innovation Conference in Sydney this spring. Dick described the process that he and his students employed, basically reinventing the United States Postal Service manual used by all postal employees and many of their larger clients. According to the images Dick presented, now the manual is user-friendly and helps expedite service. (We were wondering why “Neither rain nor snow nor dark of night…” didn’t include something about unwieldy instruction manuals, but apparently it is no longer an issue.)
The coincidence question came up for me when, about a month later, I started learning about other new, meaningful innovations for improved service by the “Post Office.”
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by Darrel Rhea
30 April 2006
Making innovation happen in the best environment is tough. Making innovation happen when the lines of authority are foggy is exponentially harder.
In the ideal world, someone owns each of your company’s brands. That is, he or she is accountable for the brand’s performance, and has the authority to control brand touch points and mandate changes. Without this structure of authority, there will be “brand by committee,” or “brand by politics,” or “brand by pecking order.” Usually it’s all three, and usually it’s ugly. If this occurs in a franchise business, which is where many consumer products and services are distributed, it’s worse than ugly.
If you are the brand manager and you own a brand, your responsibility is to define the brand experience. If it is clearly articulated (functional benefits, emotional benefits, economic benefits, and an explicit way the brand creates meaning in our culture), you can define criteria to evaluate how the brand is delivering today. And you can provide a tight creative brief for efforts to improve it. This focus provides a critical context for innovation research.
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Innovation & Design
| Meaningful Experience
| Methods & Techniques
by Darrel Rhea
14 April 2006
Again, reporting from Sydney…
“Superannuation” is the common Australian term for “retirement savings.” Retirement is something that touches almost all of us whether we think about it actively or not. Eventually, most of us will live beyond the period in which we are able to earn a paycheck. Having recently completed a Cheskin consulting engagement with an American organization that offers tax-qualified retirement plans -- and directing the research to determine what is meaningful to their customers – the concept of funding retirement has come into focus for me: retirement is about survival.
Retirement in the U.S. is a big hairy problem. With our Social Security system in a tenuous position, the imminent retirement of the Boomer population is going to be an expense that is very probably not to be adequately covered. The Feds have been discussing this problem for years; it was a key part of the Presidential campaign platform -- and is as yet unresolved. So far, what we have heard from them as the most future-oriented option is “privatization.”
This is where Australian Pioneering comes in...
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Meaningful Experience
by Darrel Rhea
2 April 2006
It’s been a few years since I was last in Sydney, so my experience here is as if through new eyes. What I am seeing this week is that Australians are a very straight-forward lot – sort of a combination of Brit and Pioneer. It’s refreshing.
The Pioneer aspect makes itself apparent in many unexpected ways, not the least of which is innovative programs developed by the government, as unexpected as that sounds. Rarely do we think of government as a source of enlightened design thinking.
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
19 March 2006
The ubiquitous use of RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) is finally starting to show up on the radar screen of consumer outcry. It’s ironic that the latest hue is from Berkeley bibliophiles. Upon learning of the impending use of RFID technology in the Berkeley Public Library, protesters have avowed to boycott it. I don’t remember reading anything similar when San Francisco and Seattle discussed implementing RFIDs a few years ago, and not even when Santa Clara Public Library tagged all of their materials in 2000. Is it the Berkeley mind-set, or is it that the public is finally catching up to what is going on?
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Consumer Technology Trends
by Darrel Rhea
2 March 2006
Often when clients begin to work with us, one of the first questions they ask is “How do we get our customers to accept and buy our products?” Given that is what their work is almost always measured by – numbers that represent units sold, profit per unit, and overall profitability – it’s understandable. But it's the wrong question to be asking.
Traditional “common sense” has taught manufacturers to develop products first then work hard to get the market to accept it. When innovating in this mode, designers get reduced to “putting lipstick on the pig” and design researchers are called on to optimize the best possible color and shade of lipstick. You get the idea. It all creates an egregious waste of energy and resources because the basic product concept might really oink.
The best way to get customer-acceptance of products is to design products (and services) that are a direct expression of consumer or customer needs, wants and desires. This practice is Customer-Led Innovation, and it is the most effective way to produce value for customers – which is the primary job of innovation in the first place.
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
12 February 2006
A good friend of mine is getting his 15 minutes of global fame this week. His recent story about his simple act of clumsiness has become so widespread internationally that if you were to Google his name, you’d get 868,000 options to learn about what he did and why people think it is meaningful.
The short version of the story is that Craig McCabe was single-handling his 65-foot yacht between Newport and the Catalina Islands off Southern California, and somehow fell off. The boat kept going, and he was there in the broad expanse of cold water by himself -- without a life jacket.
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Meaningful Experience
by Darrel Rhea
29 January 2006
Everybody needs downtime. In the past – when I had the luxury of recreational time – my play of choice was either composing music or something physically challenging such as paragliding and white water kayaking. These days, though, I have to settle for getting my kicks by playing with a handful of tech toys. As a confirmed closet geek, I love ‘em all.
Below are my current five favorite tech products. Each of them actually exceeded my expectations:
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Consumer Technology Trends
| Meaningful Experience
by Darrel Rhea
2 January 2006
New Year’s resolutions are almost always well intended…but unfortunately, they’re usually short-lived. A couple of days ago I discovered an interesting website, 43 Things, that provides online community support for its users to achieve their aspirations throughout the year. It’s an engaging concept, for a community-oriented website. What’s even more interesting are the goals that are cited the most by the thousands of people who make their declarations public. They tell us a lot about what is meaningful to Americans today.
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Consumer Goods Trends
| Innovation & Design
| Meaningful Experience
by Darrel Rhea
28 December 2005
A careful look at how companies are spending to target Hispanics through Spanish language media (SLM) reveals some pretty interesting things.
First, many of the biggest advertisers are completely ignoring the Spanish dominant Hispanic markets altogether. (For more detail on the characteristics of the Hispanic market, and discussion on English versus Spanish language media [“SLM”] strategies, see the Cheskin-published blogs of Steven Palacios or Felipe Korzenny, for example, or Nielsen Media, HispanicBusiness.com, Advertising Age, or gee, just Google it.) You’d think that with the sheer volume of information out there, savvy marketers would be able to convince decision-making-execs of the importance of this buy.
Capital One and Sony score a big zero. That’s right, in 2004, they reported spending virtually nothing on SLM! Wouldn’t you think that Capital One Financial, who appears to be aggressively going after just about everybody, would focus on one of the fastest rising economic segments in the U.S.? Ditto with Sony Corp.! Any major supplier of entertainment electronics should know better. Perhaps they use nontraditional techniques, such as viral marketing (Sony does sport an RSS feed on its website), but I still find it curious.
In the tech world, HP is spending almost more than Microsoft and IBM combined.
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Hispanic Markets
by Darrel Rhea
20 November 2005
Writing Making Meaning has been an interesting process. Not only was our topic and material born from hundreds of thousands of interviews over many years of professional work, but as we get closer to the publication date, the book has also resulted in an increased intensity at Cheskin of internal discussions about our own treasured objects and the respective personal meanings behind them for us.
This round of discovery was kicked off when I asked all my Cheskin coworkers to do a short exercise and send me the results. My requested was that each person choose an article that he/she had purchased and which had provided a meaningful experience, to write a short essay about it and to send me the results. I also requested a photo of the object with the author.
To make clear what I was requesting, I wrote one myself and attached it to the request. Here’s mine:
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Innovation & Design
| Meaningful Experience
by Darrel Rhea, 0 comments
12 November 2005
The Effective Executive has long been one of the first books I turned to when I’ve needed a refresher on management skills. It was, in fact, a book I picked up immediately when I first became CEO of Cheskin. I knew it would help to ground my thinking once again, at a time when I needed to be reminded of ways to touch move and inspire a team. What I have always appreciated about the thinking behind that book is that it isn’t about managing one’s team; it is about managing oneself…and clearly that is the best place to start. To lead well is to be a leader.
The thinking behind this, of course, is from Peter Drucker, author, teacher, consultant, self-proclaimed social ecologist. I was sad to read that Mr. Drucker died yesterday at the age of 95. He was the consummate leader himself, teaching many of us to be more effective through improved time management, better decision-making, setting priorities, listening, communicating. I really liked that he viewed employees as resources and not as a cost, which is a point of view not embraced often enough by corporate executives. I was always moved by his increasing focus in the nonprofit world, and he inspired me to start spending more time with colleagues to figure out how we can leverage our resources to serve humanity in ways that the for-profit sector can’t.
I like especially his thinking about innovation, and how important it is to “turn on the tap” so that the corporate imagination will flow. “The tap,” he wrote in The Effective Executive, “is…disciplined disagreement.” How cool is that? Almost any executive can be a visionary, but it takes an enlightened executive to collaborate with his team to open up the ideation to all players and then to build the systems (discipline) required to succeed in implementation.
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
4 November 2005
My wife bakes a cookie that my boys and I think is the best in the world. “A keeper!” we declared after she first tried a recipe she got last year from Cook’s Illustrated. She whipped up a batch just this evening, in honor of our son visiting from New Zealand. Ummm. The fragrance of the cookies baking brought to mind the recent New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell about a long-time Cheskin colleague, Steve Gundrum. Steve heads Mattson & Co., a food R&D firm that innovates products that you probably have on your shelf, if not on your table, right now.
But this isn’t about cookies, much as I like to ponder them, or the interesting story Gladwell weaves about Steve’s Delta Project and the Great Bake Off. It’s about…yes, you guessed it: Innovation. And it’s about how to fashion a recipe for success for innovation that’s a keeper.
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
25 October 2005
Despite devoting my meaningful work life to helping companies create meaningful innovations in products and services, I must admit that once in a while I am surprised when a financial institution comes up with a new service that is truly different and not just another marketing trick. This one is Bank of America’s new Keep The Change™ program.
Only recently launched, this is indeed meaningful to its potential users, meeting the criteria we delineated in our book Making Meaning (which is soon to be launched itself). And, in this case, it’s meaningful not just for each individual consumer, but ultimately – if it kicks off and becomes broadly successful – can be meaningful to our savings-starved economy.
What is Keep The Change and how does it work? It’s an electronic rendition of what some of my buddies did for years – every time they had a handful of change, they tossed it into a jar and when the jar was full, they rolled the coins and banked them. This is a little less visible, but equally painless way to save for consumers who buy with a debit card: the electronic debit card system rounds up on the cost of the purchase to the nearest dollar and stuffs the difference into the holder’s savings account.
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Innovation & Design
| Meaningful Experience
by Darrel Rhea
2 October 2005
About a year ago, an ex-employee who now lives in China called and asked me to be on the board of directors of a Chinese brewing company he had the opportunity to buy. While that venture didn't come together, my friend has his fingers in a wide range of other businesses ranging from exporting organically grown foods and ingredients to the Chinese music business, where he is very successfully managing and producing his eldest daughter’s career. Not only is she on her way to being a Chinese rock star, but they are branching out into ad jingles for the European market. He’s definitely an opportunistic entrepreneur operating on the frontier of a developing market.
Though the venture he is building is still small, he is a good example of what is happening with business in China these days. Where opportunities abound, opportunism rears its interested head. Many, like my friend, are scrambling to take advantage of the openings provided by changes in regulation, changes in values, changes in capital availability, and changes at almost every other level. What is especially interesting about this situation is that the dynamic nature of this market makes it exceptionally hard for businessmen to plan and manage based on “sound” (traditional) principles and expect long term success to come of it. As Donald Sull termed it, in his excellent recent publication, Made In China, it’s “the fog of the future.”
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China Markets
| Meaningful Experience
by Darrel Rhea
6 September 2005
I spent the long Labor Day weekend reading a multitude of business and economic publications and watching major corporate advertising on mainstream TV…and am shaking my head today as I come back to the office. Even after decades of aggressive competition in the market and an increasing consciousness among executives and entrepreneurs about what creates demand, it is surprising that so many just don’t get it right. Despite a general recognition that what does work is to offer products that have greater value for customers – that is, that the products deliver meaningful experiences to them -- corporations often get side tracked by focusing too heavily on creating internal value. Yes, corporate initiatives such as leveraging technology, core systems, supply chains, financial structures, alliances, channel partners, etc., are important for strengthening a company. But initiatives like these hardly provide the incremental innovation needed to keep up with a demanding customer base much less create the breakthrough innovations required to be a market leader.
Part of the work that we do here at Cheskin that I am most passionate about is helping companies learn and apply processes for innovation that counts: creating customer value through meaning. As mentioned in my latest BusinessWeek Online article “Understanding Why People Buy,” it’s not a new concept – but one that begs exploration and systemization in new ways. No doubt you’ll be seeing more comments about that here.
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Etcetera
| Meaningful Experience
by Darrel Rhea
1 September 2005
I have been listening to NPR by day and watching CNN at night, observing the unfolding of the horror in the South wreaked by Katrina. The stories that the reporters have been telling often border on the incredulous. Despite the constant barrage of information and images, sometimes I am almost in denial about it all —could this be happening here? And to our own people? Clearly there are whole cities and towns completely wiped out…and those inhabitants and visitors who have survived are suffering horrifically.
Thanks to an email I received from United Mileage Plus today, I was jogged into remembering that I needed to donate to the relief efforts now underway. I did so immediately, responding by going to the American Red Cross. Some firms are giving in-kind goods, such as Anheuser-Busch donating 825,000 cans of water to the Red Cross. It’s encouraging to see that some outpouring of help is starting to build. I’ve begun noticing other online links to donation sites, such as on the homepages of A9, Amazon and Google. After surfing around, it’s clear that many online retailers and even news organizations aren’t on the bandwagon yet – we all could put up a link on our homepage reminding people that we need to support the victims now, with a link to an appropriate service organization. You can at least click on one of them right here: AmeriCares and Operation USA. Do it now.
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Etcetera
by Darrel Rhea
2 August 2005
Because our work was profiled in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Blink,” it generates a lot of questions for me on a weekly basis. It makes sense to comment on how “thin slicing” connects to the reality of shoppers making buy decisions on packaged goods. (For tips on how to deal with the retail experience overload, see my previous blog, “Mastering the Grocery Shopping Experience.”) People base their buying decisions on a strong feeling they get which isn’t necessarily rational but usually justified on some levels. The feeling that drives their decision is intuition, and what Gladwell calls “thin slicing” – but it’s not always right, just as any subjective opinion isn’t always right.
Why do we thin slice in the store? People do it out of self defense, simply because there’s so much stimuli in any retail environment that it virtually impedes shoppers from operating rationally. After all, most stores carry between 25,000 and 40,000 separate products, each with multiple packages. If you attempted to consciously “see” even a fraction of those, you would experience mental overload! --your brain would slow to a crawl and you would vulnerable to predators (like those old ladies with shopping carts that might run you over). It’s an evolutionary coping mechanism.
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Etcetera
| Innovation & Design
| Positioning & Branding
by Darrel Rhea
11 July 2005
Recently Heide Collins, a CNN anchor, was interviewing me as an expert in visual marketing. She asked me how I would advise the typical shopper to deal with the grocery shopping experience. CNN's query was sparked by consumers’ increasing wariness about being manipulated by manufacturers and marketers. I figure that we are all shoppers, so this might be useful to you. So, here’s my list for ways to deal with that and not be unduly swayed to spend money on what you don’t really want and don’t need.
Darrel’s Tips for Mastering the Grocery Shopping Experience
# 1. Don’t shop hungry.
You’ve heard this before, but probably forget. Hungry people impulse buy more then satiated, full people. Haven’t you ever noticed that usually the delis and bakeries are near the entrances with higher margin products? Yes, those indulgent-looking and savory-smelling products make us hungry and want to buy…now.
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Consumer Goods Trends
by Darrel Rhea
7 July 2005
Someone just asked me what I thought the value of blogging has been for Cheskin, after our launching our corporate blog some 30 months ago in 2003. My take is that it’s been an entirely valuable exercise for us. Blogging connects our organization to the world in a way that is tangibly different from other forms of communication. This is probably true for most serious (regular) bloggers. Revealing yourself engages you in a broader discourse; you become a participant in the world in a different way. It’s a subtle attitudinal change that has us show up as more responsible citizens.
The other thing about blogging is being humbled by the power of words. While they can enlighten and inspire, the same words can offend. Blogs are personal, yet quite public when thousands read them. Again, it forces us to be responsible for the “listening” of others.
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Consumer Technology Trends
by Darrel Rhea
25 June 2005
Recently Ed Batista and I traded emails on Malcolm Gladwell's Blink – specifically Gladwell’s positioning of focus groups as a "a tax on revolutionary ideas.” Batista asked my take on Gladwell’s comment on focus groups as being detrimental to innovation. My reply was that market research has already evolved beyond where Malcolm is talking about it. Focus groups are an easy target because they are misused and over used. There will be 950,000 focus groups conducted in the world this year, and yes, some real atrocities will result from some misapplications of a perfectly good methodology. But that is only one method used in research, and there are plenty of others that do a great job of informing designers and the design process. Cheskin’s been making speeches about this since the early 80’s.
Contrary to Ed’s POV, Malcolm doesn’t pose a stiff challenge to traditional techniques. What he posed instead is a challenge to the mindless application of one specific technique by clients who demand focus groups – and an industry of researchers who don’t know better. The reality is we evolved a highly sophisticated design research practice decades ago, using ethnography and a host of other tools proven to be effective and fully endorsed by design innovators.
You don’t use focus groups to evaluate revolutionary ideas. They can provide context for them. They can facilitate the generation of them. This is old news now getting broad exposure, but better late than never. That’s Gladwell’s welcomed contribution.
Posted in
Etcetera
| Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
16 June 2005
Recently my son asked me to read an article in Discover Magazine , on the positive effects of video gaming. My concerns as a parent of a preteen (and several post-teens) about the effects of popular culture on youth influence many of my decisions about allowable activities, or duration of participation. Maybe, according to the many studies cited and various writers’ testimonials in Discover, gaming actually does have positive effects on shaping cognitive thinking -- and perhaps I should view gaming as important to shaping my son’s critical thinking as, say, reading or joining the debate team.
It seems that the addictive nature of games (the good ones) occurs not only because they are entertaining, but because they are challenging to the gamer at the appropriate level every step along the way, thereby taking the gamer to his/her point of “Flow” or what cognitive psychologists termed “regime of competence.” This is a core principal of learning: as the gamer (learner) becomes more proficient, the activity, characters and subcontext become more complex and rewarding.
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Posted in
Consumer Technology Trends
| Etcetera
by Darrel Rhea
9 June 2005
As Terri Ducay's blog notes, we just returned from the DMI Brand Design Conference more convinced than ever that business demand for design innovation is getting hotter every day and is likely to explode. This isn't the first time we've heard this. What is different from past predictions is who is doing the predicting and what its implications are.
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
7 June 2005
Ed Bastista’s blog today talked about Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, and how important design is for influencing people’s perceptions of products and services. Bastista’s focus is on web design, and his assessment is spot on.
As Malcolm and I discussed in the book, most viewers can not and do not distinguish between the content of the product or service, and the appearance or “packaging” of the site (made up of its graphics, navigational, and branding elements). We have done hundreds of studies that have confirmed this. Design absolutely alters our perceptions in significant ways.
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
5 June 2005
As I fly high over Utah this Sunday morning, I’m experiencing one of those rare moments of solitude that pop up while traveling. Beautiful skies, clouds, landscape, and some great music on the headphones. How lucky I am to be flying 500 miles an hour in an aluminum tube, miles high and watching the sun play on Earth’s cloud formations.
It is so easy to keep my head down and plow through my day, and close myself off to the beauty that surrounds me. And it is so hard to stop, tune-in and sense what is happening around me, and then re-evaluate if what I am doing matches up with my environment. I go on to the next thing, not necessarily the next right thing.
While that might sound like a “stop and smell the roses” theme, it is really something much more important. The ability to see one’s situation in an open way, calibrate one’s perceptions/preconceptions and take action is a core trait of a survivor. I don’t just mean a survivor of an emergency situation, but a survivor of life. People who are successful and thrive in life have the ability to get off autopilot and really notice the reality of their situation, and then take responsibility for acting appropriately.
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Etcetera
by Darrel Rhea, 0 comments
21 May 2005
We all know that Bill Gates is the media’s favorite nerd, and Microsoft is the media’s favorite evil empire. So this week’s media coverage about the new X-Box 360 introduction represents a seismic shift of these entrenched negative stereotypes. Suddenly, Bill is being characterized as “unleashed,” “hip,” “lose and happy,” and “cracking jokes and making fun of himself.” Time magazine said “somehow humanity’s most famous nerd has become kind of cool.” (Yes, we’re talking about the same Bill Gates that has been demonized decades.)
What force drove this epic transformation? Design. The new X-Box is a multi-billion dollar bet that a stodgy engineering culture within a monolithic global corporation can produce a cultural hip thing of beauty and relevance. So far, the media is declaring them successful, calling
it “cool,” “sleek,” “feminine,” “sophisticated.” And this coolness is creating a positive halo that is coloring perceptions of Bill and his whole enterprise. Time Magazine crows “from geek to chic.”
The hard part wasn’t creating the design. They simply hired some of the best industrial designers in the world, like our friends at Astro. The hard part was listening to them and accepting their work. That’s where design research comes in. Cheskin did research with all types of gamers in Asia, Europe and the US on the new X-Box designs.
What gamers told us was that the elegant console “had to be made either by Sony or Apple.” Bingo! That provided the confidence do an “unnatural act.” That is, it gave a nerdy corporate culture the confidence to accept the authentically cool and hip innovation of their development team.
There are a lot of other reasons why this product is likely to be a success, but if it was as ugly as the first X-Box, it would be a sure failure. Congratulations to the development team for listening to their consumers – and achieving a breakthrough in innovation!
Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
7 May 2005
Cheskin is big on collaboration, and we are always looking for new ways to enhance our communications. That’s why I took notice when the people who run Sun Labs showed off two of their new products to me at Sun Labs Day. Given that Sun has invested over $8 billion in research over the last 4 years on the coolest future technology, getting an invite to this small event is a privilege. To call their open house (held at the Computer History Museum) a “geek fest” is an understatement. I found myself in conversations about metacircularity, acoustic resonance spectrometry, and squawk technology. (It should go without saying that I understood nothing about these, but used the opportunity to refine my intelligent, sincere nod –- it’s all in the eyebrows.)
The first was “Office Central.” The goal of this system is to provide remote workers some of the social advantages that workers in a central location enjoy.
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Consumer Technology Trends
| Etcetera
by Darrel Rhea
26 April 2005
Cheskin is full of great people who are committed to performing with excellence in their job, but one stellar example is Terri Gubi. Terri understands intuitively what the Cheskin experience should be and has expanded her role to be instrumental in delivering it. Almost everyone in Cheskin’s community interacts with Terri daily; she’s a central touch point for all of our clients and our internal teams.
Terri asked that her title be changed from “Receptionist” to “Concierge” because she defines her role to be about serving us. When you call or visit, Terri is the competent, compassionate human being ready to help you do what is needed. She runs a tight ship, keeping track of approximately 85 people on a day to day basis, but always has smiles and friendly words.
If there's a world event that puts one of our travelers in danger, Terri is the one who arrives at work already knowing where that person is, if they're safe, and who in their family needs to be contacted. Clients? Terri knows all of them. Projects? She knows about most of them too. Need a restaurant in the area? Terri’s got your reservations. Birthdays? Babies? Illness? Terri's on it.
Every now and then, companies are given a gift in the form of an 'employee' who gives their heart, soul and brain to the company. Our gift is Terri Gubi, Concierge.
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Etcetera
by Darrel Rhea
8 April 2005
Two days ago, the NY Times reported that Taco Bell finally caved to a four-year boycott by a group that represents farm workers in Southern Florida to increase the wages of migrant workers and impose a tough code of conduct on Florida tomato suppliers. A senior VP of Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell– not to mention Pizza Hut, A&W All American Food Restaurants and Long John Silver's – cited a case for “human rights” and that now under Taco Bell’s new labor rules "indentured servitude by suppliers is strictly forbidden."
This is admirable corporate conduct. It is encouraging to think that a behemoth fast food company finally cares about human rights and quality of life for the workers that supply them with product. What I think we have here is a traditional corporate player who wouldn’t normally get involved in migrant labor issues but is now realizing the importance of the Hispanic segment of their market.
From a marketing perspective, Yum is demonstrating serious brand leadership by expressing ethics and values from the point of view of its customers, not just from the point of view of management. It will be interesting to watch how Yum manages the PR on this action, and if this approach spreads to other parts of their organization.
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Etcetera
| Etcetera
| Hispanic Markets
by Darrel Rhea
20 March 2005
Recently one of my colleagues wrote a fairly scathing review of Blink, Malcolm Gladwell’s newest tome after The Tipping Point. While I agree with some of her concerns about the conclusions people may take away from it in terms of unfounded or unfair snap judgments, I find that much of my work (many thousands of research studies) confirms his premise that people process visual information rapidly and on an unconscious level. In fact, his work echoes Cheskin's pioneering work a half a century ago. Blink will likely become Gladwell’s newest contribution to Twenty-first Century cultural idiomatics. But that doesn’t mean that rapid conclusions are always correct, or even that it is a good way to make decisions. Hence, the broad and deep customer studies proffered by Cheskin -- which do, in fact, support well-founded decisions that drive many millions of dollars into wise investment or away from product and brand concepts that would otherwise clearly fail.
Unfortunately, while many businesses do invest in the type of sophisticated research it takes to predict success, not all do—and not all take the advice that they pay for either. And sometimes, they fall prey to their own blinking, such as the failure of New Coke, which Gladwell discusses in Blink based on his interview of Davis Masten and me (most of which is paraphrased in the book).
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Etcetera
| Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
4 March 2005
The growing impact of China on all of our lives has been frequent conversation here for a few years, but every few days it takes on a clearer focus for me. The most recent insight that stopped me in my tracks this week was a statistic that William McDonough and I talked about. Bill is one of the world’s leading architects and is currently designing new cities for China. He reported that the government will build housing for over 400 million people in the next 12 years.
Now, think about that: building housing for almost twice the population of the US virtually all at once. If you think about what that will do to the world’s demand for building materials of all kinds, you’ll quickly conclude that prices for many things you will need to buy are going to go up.
I was stunned by the scale of this undertaking -- and was suspicious that Bill’s passionate advocacy for environmental issues might have caused some exaggeration, so I brought up the issue at breakfast this morning with a very senior official in the Department of Commerce who leads our trade negotiations. He thinks Bill’s numbers are conservative! The Chinese government’s campaign to pull 800 million people out of poverty is perhaps the world’s most ambitious “bottom of the pyramid” development program. What an incredible opportunity for design to create a sustainable, human environment.
It is becoming clear that China will be the driving global influence in the industrial economy. The US, fueled largely by California’s technology and entertainment sectors, will continue to drive the world’s definition of ownership of intellectual property. The collision of these forces will create conditions critical for business to navigate. How will it change your actions? What should you be doing differently right now?
Posted in
China Markets
| China Markets
by Darrel Rhea
6 February 2005
A new year is always good for regeneration, with the first part of that process being re-assessment and re-focus. This January we took a few moments at Cheskin HQ to do just that -- but our intention wasn’t to declare individual resolutions. Instead, we made it a company-wide exercise, deeply aware that we aren’t just a “company,” we are a team.
What is new for us this year is our increased emphasis on the “Cheskin Experience.” We define that as the experience we want to design for ourselves and each other at Cheskin, and the experience we want to create for our clients. “Experience” can be an elusive concept, so we are tenacious in drilling down to uncover just what that means—starting with our shared desire to create a transformative experience for our clients and ourselves, in order to dramatically transform their ability to accomplish their desired outcomes. We concentrate on delivering this through creating powerful learning experiences for ourselves and our clients (going beyond standard interpretations to deliver deeper, broader and more original insights); offering up the experience of collaboration to create an innovating community with them that’s far greater than the sum of its parts; and creating the experience of inspiration.
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Posted in
Meaningful Experience
by Darrel Rhea
30 October 2004
This week I spent a few hours with a highly successful CEO discussing his brand identity questions and concerns. “What do the most successful brand initiatives have in common?” he asked. I shared an observation with him based on many years of having similar conversations and being involved in successful (and not so successful) branding programs.
There are a lot of reasons to embark on a major corporate branding program, but from the point of view of a CEO, most of them are simply not compelling. For many years I have watched marketers and design managers struggle to get large scale identity programs funded and supported by senior-most management. Even though there are clear breakdowns caused by the existing identity systems and designers believe they are presenting a clear, rational justification for investment…their attempts are rebuffed more often than accepted.
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Posted in
Positioning & Branding
by Darrel Rhea, 1 comments
8 October 2004
The recent political “debates” are important nationally and globally, but aren’t really debates. With the participants – Kerry, Bush, Cheney and Edwards – more often addressing issues lined up by a moderator than directly sparring with each other, I’d characterize them as more a form of interview. (Click for a full transcript and thought-provoking commentary on the first Presidential debate.)
It’s clear that of the four, the interviewees with the most to lose are the least revealing. Incumbents Bush and Cheney demonstrated themselves to be well-prepped, staying on messaging consistently. But, their “answers,” even when sprinkled with new statistics, didn’t enlighten listeners beyond the rhetoric we have been reading in the press for many months. Politically, it was probably a good strategy for them…though didn’t result in exciting debates or even very good interviews.
There are a number of basic types of interviews: journalistic, research, job, and political. No matter which type it is, the basic goal of an interview is to mine for information. Probably what makes each of the types so different is the ultimate desired outcome for that information. Political: explain the candidate’s position on issues of interest to the voting public. Journalistic: entertain, and sell the publication (whatever medium). Job: hire or be hired. Research: solve a problem.
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Posted in
Methods & Techniques
by Darrel Rhea
20 September 2004
Now that Christopher Ireland has relinquished the position of CEO to me, I have been fielding this question most every day. My first response is that I am humbled by the honor to lead such a talented group of people. Many of our folks are the best in the world at their respective specialties. The raw intellectual horsepower and creativity of our people allow us to compete successfully with the largest, most prominent consulting firms and research organizations in the world. Cheskin isn't just any consultancy, so both internal and external expectations are extremely high. This position would be a challenge for even the most experienced CEO, and it certainly is one for me.
It's also a positive opportunity for me to leverage the skills I have acquired over the last 25 years at Cheskin, leading and coaching a diverse range of senior executives, boards of directors, consultants and agencies. I find it exciting to use what I have learned through decades of engagements, to benefit my coworkers within my own organization, who rarely have had the opportunity to see me do my best work.
The part of this job that resonates with me most is that it allows me to be myself. I am most comfortable when I am listening deeply, and have the opportunity to work thoughtfully. My clients express their appreciation for my ability to step back and see patterns, to recognize gaps and opportunities, and then to help focus and realign their team -- all of which I will apply here. And, I most enjoy drawing out the best from people, coaching and guiding them in their commitments, which is what this job is about. Cheskin's management team is top rate and from an operational perspective, the company actually runs itself. I can concentrate on the bigger picture.
Cheskin has consistently been a major innovator in our category of business for over 55 years. While we have led the industry with our perspective, thought leadership, and inventive methodological approaches, our own organization hasn't always benefited from it as much as it might. We have been more driven to defining and practicing the state-of-the-art than building a powerful institution. This is one of the aspects that I see we need to focus on now. Along with having the best people and best consulting and research products, Cheskin will be recognized as a world-class organization and culture.
So, how does it feel to be CEO of Cheskin? I find it to be an exhilarating, stimulating challenge!
Posted in
Etcetera
by Darrel Rhea
17 September 2004
Home Depot has recently opened a very nice store next door to Cheskin's NY office. This $20 million project is “Home Depot for the urban city dweller.” It has very clean contemporary retail design, with a selection of merchandise focused home décor. No tall racks, no raw building materials -- think carpets, window coverings, hardware, plants, furniture, etc. It is very similar to the feel of their Expo franchise that they seem to be fazing out. Very nice signage, nice fixtures, atrium, escalators. What is this supposed to signal for the Home Depot brand experience? A kinder, gentler and more female friendly space?
It doesn't have the style of a Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, or Restoration Hardware. It is a strange positioning -- more functional than style or lifestyle oriented. But it doesn't seem to have the utility of a real hardware store. It will be interesting to see if consumers spark to this middle ground. Personally, I’m one of those man-guys who loves to wander around and check out the tools and strange supplies of a traditional hardware store – I find it entertaining. But the women I know don’t share that attraction, and hate (hate!) the regular Home Depot experience. I can't figure out why I would go to this new version except for price. I left feeling that if I had a project, I would need to go this store and another hardware store too.)
The store is filled with point of sale technology. When will retailers learn that they need to make a serious investment in the design of these systems to assure they work? When these interactive kiosks don't work, it equates to poor service. At least a salesperson can apologize and not waste your time. The system I used seemed like a repurposed online website, with dead ends that even the service people on the floor couldn't make work. My rule of thumb, if the technology doesn't work as reliably as a human service person -- keep designing.
Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
6 September 2004
I had an experience yesterday that literally touched, moved and inspired me. It was the result of a design that was so well conceived, planned and executed that it blew me away. An "Experience E-Ticket"
I was up early in Washington, D.C., on my way to the airport. I decided to drop by the Vietnam War Memorial to pay my respects to my brother, but was disappointed to find that it was closed off for repairs. Walking back towards the car I found myself drawn to the marble stairs of the Lincoln Monument. I climbed them as the summer sun rose from behind the towering Washington monument, its long shadow darkening the huge Reflecting Pool. I paused to take in the vista from the top of the stairs, and from there I could see only a couple of distant guards and a lone jogger. I turned and entered the tomb, alone, in silence.
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
22 August 2004
One of the things I like most about blogs is the immediacy and authenticity I get from being connected directly to people and their experience. So I was disappointed to hear a campaign manager say off record that the blogs of her well known candidate were not actually written by him. They are based on his experiences and ideas, and well, he edits them occasionally…
Too bad. His blogs are juicy, contemporary sonnets, tightly constructed, with just a touch of wit and plenty of intelligence. The type you read and say, “Dang, this person is smart and cool.” Now I learn that it is just another form of media to help position the candidate. It has become a writing exercise for a pro that is operating from a creative brief, mixing up the right balance of values and principles, personality and humility, tone and manner.
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Posted in
Etcetera
by Darrel Rhea
14 August 2004
We have been having conversations about the impact of ubiquitous monitoring technologies for years. Paul Saffo was arguing passionately about this with me over a decade ago. While I have understood the cultural implications on an abstract, theoretical level, it is starting to come more into focus for me. I have never been paranoid about Big Brother, but I am noticing several things coming together.
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea, 0 comments
6 July 2004
This is a question that both of our firms get asked often. We collaborate, we compete, we have overlapping offerings, and our marketing materials and the language we use to describe our value has much in common. How do I think about the differences?
While IDEO and Cheskin share a commitment to the importance of understanding the customer in design, we are substantially different in our approach to design research. IDEO's focus on research is directed at improving their creativity and effectiveness in generating product-based solutions. The deliverable that they get rewarded for is industrial design. Research is the means to discover and produce a design solution as efficiently as possible. IDEO research is focused on observational and experiential methods. It is fast and when done with this narrow focus, it can be done by designers or less experienced researchers. This approach fits into IDEO's highly-margined prepackaged process where the industrial design or product solution is the hero.
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
29 June 2004
I’m a guy that truly enjoys tech gadgets and am an early adopter of them. But the true tech geek has the patience and skill to delve deeply into the programming details to make them work and loves that challenge. Me? I’m a show boater. I want the benefits of the new thing but don’t like paying the price for being on the bleeding edge of technology. I’m lazy. So when a cool new technology comes that works right out of the box, I'm thrilled.
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
10 June 2004
OK, we admit it. We're envious of our friends at IDEO getting a cover story in Business Week. Kudos to IDEO. And kudos to Bruce Nussbaum for highlighting design in a way that millions of readers can relate to.
It gets people thnking and talking about design and that's gotta be good. It also gives companies like us (Cheskin) an opportunity to show our nuanced approach to research, consumer understanding, and ultimately, design.
What I liked most about the article was that it actually talked about the design process and the way innovation happens, not just the slick output of the process. Those of us who have spent our careers in design know that the clever, elegant, and aesthetically beautiful product represents the tip of an enormous iceberg of activities that are invisible to the lay public. Lurking under the sexy appearance is often years of hard work, thousands of man hours -- work done by designers and design researchers whose output is less easy to photograph but is critical none the less.
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
9 April 2004
No Guts -- No Glory
Cheskin has provided me a front row seat to observe businesses attempt to innovate products and brands for 25 years. The industry swings over time, and now I am seeing greater interest in innovation emerge once again. Not surprisingly, we have seen a lull recently. The dot bomb exuberance made risk-taking appear idiotic. Sarbanes-Oxley has riveted senior management’s attention on providing steady-handed corporate governance. And the poor economy has punished many companies for attempting innovation initiatives.
Now the economy is picking up, and the time for retrenchment and tail-covering is over. Customers and consumers are demanding innovation and the market will reward those capable of the gumption for delivering it
This time around, however, managers are most interested in big innovation without risk. Can’t we engineer a process to deliver transformative change and be smart enough to eliminate risk? While Cheskin’s approach certainly substantially reduces risk and provides focus and efficiency, real innovation fundamentally does involve risk. Unless you embrace that risk, you are very likely to fail.
Consider this analogy: you are trying to learn to ski on steep downhill runs. If you lean forward and embrace the risk you gain control. There is still risk and you are aware of it, but it does not impede you. If you resist the risk and attempt to gain control by being tentative and going slow, not only do you expend more effort, you are more likely to fall.
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
2 April 2004
What a great place Barcelona is to visit to increase your design awareness, or just get stimulated. This is a beautiful city, and it appears to have been that way for centuries. The architecture is delightful everywhere you turn, demonstrating that the Spanish are never afraid to add details with the sole purpose of delighting people. Every time I come to Barcelona I am more taken with the brilliance of Gaudi. Here is a sketch I did of his apartment roof, La Pedera.
I did this on my tablet PC. I am enjoying learning to draw again, after years of laying off. The tablet is a fantastic tool for serious art and quick sketches too.
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
2 April 2004
I have teaching innovation processes and research for quite a while now. This week I have been in Barcelona, Spain, working with 25 executives from around the world. There is nothing like public speaking to an international audience to make me aware of how many figures of speech and how much slang I use to explain myself. Participants included people who flew in from Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, US, China, UK, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Spain…and other countries! You can’t take anything for granted with an audience like this.
Next time I go abroad, I am going to review my slides for slang. It is a good idea for my domestic talks too. Using slang gives me a casual style that is fun and personal, but I now realize how inappropriate and insensitive it is for those who don’t get the joke. Sometimes it is hard for me to recognize my own use of slang words. (Sharing materials with any non-native speaker can usually reveal then quickly, so I’ll just have to remember to schedule time to have one of my many international Cheskin colleagues review them.)
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
31 March 2004
Forget what I said about Lufthansa, I take it all back!! (see previous Blog).
The efficient Lufthansa ground crew met me at my late connection in Munich, hustled me down some stairs and into a sedan, raced me across the airport, alerted security and customs by radio, whisked me through backdoors, marble staircases, gleaming glass security doors, and delivered me to a waiting Airbus A340-600. We encountered almost 15 people along the way, each who anticipated my arrival and knew my name. I walked on the plane and the door shut behind me. Welcome Mr. Rhea. Whew. I felt quite the VIP. What a customer experience!
I found my seat in business class and noticed that this was a brand new plane. How new? The photographers were on the runway snapping pictures. The Airbus A340-600 is the new flagship for long-haul international travel and the Lufthansa people were very proud of it. It is huge with completely redesigned interior components. When you sit down in the Recaro-designed seating system, you enter a personal space that is reminiscent of the complexity of an aircraft cockpit.
This brings up a classic design innovation problem. It is clear that the designers were definitely in touch with the needs of long-haul travelers and did substantial research on features, ergonomics, user interaction, and aesthetics. But in responding to these needs and desires, they have created a system that is incredibly complex. I was blown away at first, a kid in a candy store. Finally, a seating system that wasn’t designed to hurt my 6’4” body. I started tweaking buttons to get comfortable without quite getting it right. Then I did what I almost never do; I read the 12 page user manual.
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
31 March 2004
Cell phone penetration in Spain is 94%, and text messaging is so common that it is noticeable. I’m in Barcelona now and people walk around reading their phones like they used to read newspapers. At a park bench or bus stop, people contemplate their phones. On the metro, they share the view of the tiny screens. While I see some of this at home in the US, it is at a different scale here.
Reading of the recent events in Madrid left me wondering how a government could be toppled in a matter of hours. One of the answers seems to be the pervasive use of text messaging. While demonstrations are not officially allowed 24 hours before a vote, text messaging volume soared in Spain as all sides lobbied for spontaneous demonstrations and certainly influenced the high 77% voter turnout.
While email and internet use are a growing part of our election process, I can’t see it having the same immediacy as a device people carry with them like a cell phone. As watches, phones and PDAs become more wired; it is only a matter of time before our society becomes more volatile and reactive.
Good that democracy might be more participative -- Bad that misinformation and rumors will certainly proliferate at the speed of light. The Spanish government-owned media is now being blamed for disseminating misinformation about the Basques, and in this case it seems that the population caught on fast and reacted to counter that effort. Technology is unleashing some serious forces here.
Posted in
Consumer Technology Trends
by Darrel Rhea
23 March 2004
I am a black belt traveler. Faster than a speeding taxi, able to leap airports in a single bound, I can recover from any curves the jet maintenance gods/weather gods/traffic gods/alarm clock gods can throw at me. I’ll get there before you and get a better seat too. With my cell phone and wireless toys in my pocket, and the best travel agent on the planet (Leslie Courts), I fear no evil.
But I’m currently in scramble mode. I’m supposed to be winging it to Barcelona right now, sipping Lufthansa’s best champagne, but I wasn’t able to get on my flight. So I find myself doing an evening of culture-watching amongst the crumbling pastel art deco hotels in South Beach, Florida.
If you want to get an update on youth culture, there is no better place than South Beach during a warm Spring Break evening. I am surrounded by massive quantities of young sunburned flesh, awash in hormones, alcohol, aftershave and perfume. These kids don’t dress for style, they undress for style. Given the epidemic of obesity in youth today, there is more to see than ever. Everyone is having a great time, swarming in packs, loudly negotiating decisions on where to eat, party, and who to pick up.
I observe from my wireless balcony perch in Starbucks, as if watching courtship behavior of gorillas in the mist.
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Posted in
Etcetera
by Darrel Rhea
14 March 2004
An old friend of mine shows up every 8 years. Each time, he has transformed himself and entered into some new wacky reality. I always love seeing him – he makes me feel like such a conformist.
In his previous incarnation, he was designing fiber optic networks in Silicon Valley. One employer after the next grew quickly and was then acquired by some larger company. He was constantly changing jobs in the go-go years until the bottom dropped out of the networking business in the dot.bomb. Always the entrepreneur, he scanned the globe for opportunities and settled on China as the epicenter of the Next Big Thing.
He sold his house, packed up his family, shipped his car and moved to Beijing. This is NOT a small thing. Beijing is not prepared for foreigners to immigrate there. Sure, they can handle executives from the big multinationals who live temporarily in gated western-style enclaves. But an individual guy and his family, moving in to set up business in China (as a Chinese company)? He is one of the very first of what I call “cultural smoke jumpers” to land, and he has had to learn how to navigate in the middle of a 5000 year old culture that is experiencing a firestorm of reinvention. His aggressiveness is the essence of why the US can lead in innovation.
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
7 March 2004
I recently got a new tablet (see previous blog) and am discovering new delights all the time. Here are several details about it for those of you who are curious.
Writing on a tablet computer is a big deal. It changes everything. I'm writing this message with a pen directly on my tablet. It’s translating my cursive handwriting into typed text. I actually have very neat printing (that anal designer/architect hand), but surprisingly, it doesn't work as well as a messy cursive for the tablet. I’m not making any effort to be neat or precise, and so far this paragraph has not required any correction -- except my misspelling of the word "tablet," and even that only required a click of the button on the pen to pull up the correct spelling to fix it. While I have not converted to cursive entry for the majority of my input yet, I may soon. I am not a fast typist, but I sure can write messy script faster than I can type.
The power of this format really starts showing up when I combine typing input with the handwriting. So far, I am much faster editing text on a keyboard and some kinds of input just works better typing, such as serious text documents or spreadsheets. I can't imagine not having the option of both. (That could change as my skills improve.) The bottom line: the power of the tablet is not in replacing the keyboard input -- it is in adding the handwriting function.
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
29 February 2004
Yes, I’m crazy in love with my wife Nancy (blush), but that isn’t what I want to write about (this time). Of all things, I’m in love with…a new computer.
That's right. After getting new computers regularly for 25 years, I just took delivery on one that is making a quantum leap in my experience of using these nasty boxes. It is fundamentally changing my behavior at work and at home…and in a good way. My new computer/software combo is allowing me to work and play in a way that is natural to me. Designed to adapt to the ways I like to work, manage, and communicate, I have more freedom to be at my peak creative. This shift is profound and completely surprising, given that the product is the result of incremental improvements of technologies that have been around for a long time.
As a reader, your defenses should be WAY up about now because this is sounding like computer ad copy hype you have been reading for eons. But bear with me. This system represents a wave of changes that will probably impact you soon.
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
22 February 2004
When one lives in Palo Alto, one is expected to celebrate unabashed nerdism. Here, brilliant nerds bask in the attention of an elite technology community who slathers attention upon them. The more esoteric the research inquiry, the higher the status.
Dropping by PARC research center after dinner, my wife and I listened to a talk by Gordon Bell (a “Father of Computing” figure and a driver behind the VAX computer), and researcher Jim Gemmell of Microsoft. Their project is called “MyLifeBits.” Here is my sketch of Gordon:
They are attempting to log into their computers as much of their human experience as they can, and prototype a system for searching it. Everything goes in, and I mean everything. Every website they visit, every CD, piece of video, audio recording, phone call, photograph they own, ad infinitum. Very ambitious.
This is interesting in terms of its implications on operating systems (this research will impact Longhorn (the next version of Windows) and therefore will be something that impacts most of our lives). But much more interesting to me are the thorny questions this inquiry raises about the future.....
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
9 November 2003
While unwrapping an item that was in storage, my brother-in-law noticed the newspaper page it was wrapped in and sent it back here from New Zealand. The December 1984 SF Examiner had two items of note.
First, a story about hackers. Hackers were first covered in Newsweek and ABC News that week, and the reporter said “I guess most pros can handle the mob and the Middle East terrorists. It’s the kids with tape on their glasses who really scare them.” He equates hacking with “simple pranksterism,” equivalent to putting soap in the local fountain or burning a bag of dog poop on the porch. “When this all blows over, I sure hope we don’t see some weird anti-computer legislation. I’m sure the pint-sized threat to society, the techno-punk prepubescent “hackers” will get what they deserve – a good spanking.” Now, I hope that reporter has lived through his share of worms…
Second, an ad for a 128K Macintosh for $1700 and an Apple IIc for $1050. What a deal!
Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
14 October 2003
Most of us have read articles like the one below from the NY Times, but there is a momentum building. The PowerPoint format is becoming synonymous with poor communication, and some segments of the culture are starting to agree that it should be avoided.
This is a lot like saying that electronic keyboards and computer music tools are responsible for there being so much bad music. No....music is now accessible to another 100 million people with no training and little talent, and these tools allow for mass distribution of this ineffective stuff. In the hands of pro musicans the medium allows good musical ideas and expressions be communicated efficiently and artfully. It aint the medium, its the message. (Hey, that's catchy.)
The vast majority of the 400 million PowerPoint users are "trying to play music with no training or experience." With no training in synthesizing information, designing presentations, graphic communications, and public speaking, they produce painful experiences.
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Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
2 September 2003
Last night we stood on the top of our small ship Tango, anchored on the edge of the marshes of the San Joaquin River delta. The view from that high place was unencumbered in all directions, just the endless and cloudless sky with a color spectrum from fire orange at the setting Western sun, through soft deep blue toward the Sierras. The strong tidal current pushed water from the marshes from many miles away through the tiny channel we were anchored in, and into a large body of water behind us.
Thousands of fish were feeding on the floating conveyor belt of food at the mouth of the channel. Schools of fish would intermittently boil the water as they surfaced to feed, flopping over before they dove for the safety of the deep.
Mirroring the teaming life below, a flock of white birds hovered and dove at the fish. They splashed the surface for only a second before retreating to the sky. Huge pelicans would occasionally join the aerial dog fight. Cruising in like stable seaplanes, they lose their grace and fall like a human pushed unwillingly off a cliff. Their large beaks pierce the water to nab a squirming fish in their pouch every time.
Nancy said, “This is like being in Winged Migration.” (That movie shows intimate views of the majesty of bird life through “birds-eye-view cinematography” and creates a delightful “shock and awe” nature experience.) The spectacle of the birds’ dinner dance was happening just feet away from us with a surreal backdrop of natural beauty. An orange sunset spread on the water, an orange moon rise, and an orange-red Mars emerging at the same time --closer that night than any time in the last 60,000 years. Only the sounds of the wind, water, and birds.
This morning I’m taking in the still sunrise on the stern deck with only the sounds of water lapping on the bottom of the Zodiac tied behind Tango and the distant cries of a flock of geese. Bright light sparkles on the water to the horizon. Last night the coyotes woke me, but they are long gone now. The fish feed continues except now huge fish ker-splash every few minutes, with a startling sound like someone throwing a small boulder into the water next to us. Hundreds of tiny starlings flit around us to feed on invisible insects. Nancy is reading next to me and drinking her coffee in the already warm sun, Casey sound asleep in his bunk below.
I am filled with gratitude for all of those people I work with, and for. The richness of these experiences are only possible because their contributions to my life. And there is also some sadness that I can not share this beauty and peacefulness with loved ones who have died. Spirituality is hard to find on airplanes and in conference rooms. Thank you, world, for these moments of peace. I promise to keep seeking them.
Posted in
Etcetera
by Darrel Rhea
26 August 2003
The convergence of media, computing, communications, audio, home theater, gaming and security devices is starting to happen as predicted, but boy, are we a long way off from having a compelling experience of their integration. Shopping, purchasing, installing and using these products together is a nightmare or just impossible. But many of us really want it, in fact, we're dying for it. But unless you are a wealthy nerd button tweaker, yer out of luck, buddy.
Home Decorators are from Venus, Consumer Electronics are from Mars
The products are made separately by different companies and it really shows. The cliché for the breakdowns are the pile of 6 or more remote control devices on the coffee table, but it goes sooo much deeper. It is clear no one is designing the whole enchilada, the whole experience. But what a business opportunity!! Imagine one integrated system of components...
1) Start with a beautiful architectural space that was design for the consumption of media and entertainment, with many of the functions built into the envelope of the home. Windows that become flat screens, walls that become projection surfaces and speakers. Light control, ventilation, security all designed together with how the user will actually use the space in mind.
2) Then add space planning that works for your life style. Not a space filled with tech products -- a space that is comfortable, functional and social.
3) Add furniture and accessories designed specifically for these uses -- with aesthetics that match your personal taste. Cup holders, tables, outlets, task and reading light, storage cubbies, printers are all built-in. Not cold repurposed office ergo-wear, but home decor with style…your style… regardless if it is tech or American traditional.
4) Now (and only now) add the capabilities for media and entertainment with ONE intuitive interface. The components are invisible (unless you need to worship the tech alter and stare into stacks of black boxes with sexy glowing LEDs). Wireless connectivity is just there.
5) And consider that you went to one store to buy this experience, perhaps even one brand of products and installation service. One brand of design services, electronic hardware products, cable/satellite/broadband, communications, furnishing, accessories, installation and maintenance.
Is there an Analog?
What is the existing analog for this? The automobile. I just bought and Infinity FX. There is a tremendous amount of complex technology (home theater, GPS, satellite radio, video cameras, distance sensors, etc.) that is all integrated, with an interface that is simple. The experience is NOT about a network of individual components sharing technical standards. It is about the driving experience, including the social aspects of what a family wants to do on a trip. Architecture, space planning, furnishing, accessories, media, integrated interface, purchase experience….all integrated and accessible.
What’s it going to take?
When home design gets designed from the ground up as a packaged experience (like a car), we stand a chance of having a connected home that will fundamentally change our experience of “home.” Who could do this? A marketer that can lead a group of talented designers, architects, engineers, technologists, and design researchers. While I love the work we do for the leading global component makers, designing the home experience is what I long for.
Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Darrel Rhea
29 July 2003
After almost 50 years of keeping his World War II experiences close to his chest, my Dad has written a book about his Navy adventures in the South Pacific. He does a great job of creating context and providing the history of the war, and provides personal sea stories that range from humorous coming-of-age events to moving accounts of the pain and horrors of war. ("Blood, Salt and Tears" has not been published yet.)
We see the war through the eyes of a teenager who comes-of-age driving landing craft in the first-wave assaults on islands. If you saw "Saving Private Ryan," you've got a vivid picture of the frightening experience of dropping the front loading ramp to a barrage of bullets. Because of his heroism and skill, he was plucked from this duty with its very short life expectancy, and made skipper of the
