Olympic Learnings

1. ?7 Lessons from Losing
2. The Olympics & How We Watch
3. A Happy?Obsolescence
4. The Forever Transformation of Marketing
5. Bad Day at the Beach
6. Econ Recon

7 Lessons from Losing

When watching the amazing performances of the world’s best athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics, it’s important to remember that?most of those we see on our screens are the winners. There are many other athletes there who have prepared for years for this event to whom we will not be introduced and who go home with no medals or endorsement deals.

But they don’t go home empty handed.

?Even the best don’t win all the time and those flying home from Paris without awards or recognition made it to a summit nearly all of us will never see…and they could no doubt share lessons that would help all of us manage ourselves better when failure, as it always does, confronts us.

Take time for a 4-minute read:?“7 Lessons You Can Learn From Losing, According to Elite Athletes.”??

The Olympics & How We Watch

Scott Galloway, in his most recent “No Mercy, No Malice” post analyzes the impact technology has had on the brand value of the 2024 Olympics currently being held in Paris. He thinks we have paid a price for the privilege of having what we want, when we want it regarding content. Despite the amazing performances of the athletes, he suggests “The Olympics have lost much of what made them the paramount sporting event. The key to an aspirational/luxury brand is the illusion of scarcity, and the Olympics feel less scarce.”

Galloway’s analysis of how technology has made the Olympics “Smaller”? is a warning to all brands. If technology can impact an enduring institution like the Olympics,?it may make your brand smaller, too.??

A Happy Obsolescence

Most products, however successful, have a life span. Buggy whips, the telegraph and telephone booths, enjoyed long lives but quick deaths when the automobile, the telephone and the mobile phone appeared.?

Other products failed in their intended use but are found to meet needs in other areas. Rogaine was original developed to treat ulcers. It failed miserably but was discovered to stimulate hair growth. Viagra was intended to treat cardiovascular problems, but its test subjects found it had other uses as well.

Some products, however, enjoy a long life and then find another even more enduring than their first and in utterly different markets and for completely different customers. And perhaps with more far-reaching effects on society.

Consider Play-Doh.

It is the rare American child who did not have an introduction to this wonderful modeling tool in their early years. But Play-Doh was not created for children. It had enjoyed an earlier 40-year incarnation as a complete unrelated produce that quickly became obsolete when home heating switched from oil and coal to much cleaner gas and electricity.??

Can you guess Play-Doh’s primary use in its former life? Take a few minutes to read about The Accidental Invention of Play-Doh. We can only what wonder what creative uses were unleashed by this product that its inventors could not have imagined…and which may have resulted in many innovations that benefit us all.

Do you have a dying product that might a new life in a new purpose for a new market? Maybe your obsolete product can have another happy ending ??!

The Forever Transformation

?In the past 40 years, computing in general and the internet in particular has transformed marketing from a qualitative endeavor into a quantitative one because data could be accessed and processed in ways that were previously impossible. In the past two years, a similar revolution is taking place again with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In a recent post available on the Vistage Website (this one is accessible by non-members),?Vistage Speaker Marc Emmer follows the money and the tale it tells about the state of marketing.? He writes “Our annual review of marketing trends and spending benchmarks reveals a stunning subplot; the confluence of technologies including AI has already reshaped the field of modern marketing. Technology now comprises 20% of marketing spend and is projected to grow to 31% within five years. Tech-enabled marketing departments are accelerating performance.”

Many SMB companies often ignore marketing initiatives because of a successful sales force and a strong economy carrying them forward. For those who underestimate the long-term importance of marketing, the late, great Dr. Peter Drucker offers this observation:? “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

SMB companies are often laggards on adopting new technology. Emmer’s recent post will help C-level executives get caught up on current marketing realities and?“How marketing spend has been transformed forever” and with it, how all of us will compete. (His post includes several other helpful links).

Bad Day at the Beach

Last week I shared an article from Vistage Speaker and IT Security Expert Mike Foster on the false sense of security that VPNs create in your team when they use their portable devices on public wi-fi like airports, hotels, etc. Here's the link again “What Executives Must Know:? VPNs and Public Network Security.”

But what about when your employees aren’t working…when they’re “off the clock” or on vacation? Foster follows up with another post on the topic for those headed to the beach in August and how to keep yourself and your team safe there (or anywhere else) while online.?Think of it as “IT Sunblock.”??

Before you pack, take a few minutes for “Vacations:? Connecting at Coffee Shops, Hotels, and Airports Can Be Dangerous to Cybersecurity-Here are Alternatives”??

Here’s to avoiding a bad day at the beach!

Econ Recon

Car Wrecks and Economics: ?One writer once remarked that “The news media are, for the most part, the bringers of bad news...and it's not entirely the media's fault, bad news gets higher ratings and sells more papers than good news.” Economic news is no exception (especially in an election year). After all, newspapers don’t write about safe drivers; they write about car wrecks; bad news sells.

A blog post from ITR Economists Lauren Saidel-Baker and Lindsey Wornham on this topic features an embedded video on the “The Dangers of Misleading News Headlines” which recaps findings on the power of negativity on our choices from one of the world’s leading research journals, “Nature,” that may help you be a more discerning consumer of all news, economic and other.

This weeks’ FedWatch from ITR?can be found here.

Economics is called the ‘dismal science’ for several reasons:? When there is good news, there is always a downside and vice-versa. The recent jobs report is a good example. Employment grew by an anemic 114,000 jobs in the US, but some were cheered by the possibility that this signifies a slowing economy and inflation and perhaps an incentive for the Feds to reduce interest rates. Dr. Brian Wesbury looks at both sides in his one-page July Employment Report.

Thank you for spending a few moments of your day reading this newsletter. I hope you find it valuable. Please share with others if you believe it could benefit them. Wishing you a productive week.

Sue Tinnish, PhD,?Vistage Chair, Facilitator, & Executive Coach

Find me easily at: 847.404.7325, [email protected], Twitter:?@STinnish, LinkedIn: www.dhirubhai.net/in/suetinnish, Website: https://vistage.com/chairs/sue.tinnish