Best Blog Reading – 7.31.09
by John R. Sedivy
My favorite blog articles that I read today, Friday, July 31, 2009:
1. Want To Co-Write On CakeJournal? by CakeJournal. Do you have a desire to write about baking but do not have a blog of your own? CakeJournal has an interesting idea of looking for a co-writer, as the writer of that blog does not have enough time to post as often as she would like. Posts are volunteer at this point but credit will be given to the author. This is an interesting idea that I had not come across and might be a good idea for someone wanting to try blogging without a full commitment of their own blog. I will be interested to see how this plays out!
2. Will It Blend? iPhone by Blendtec. Anyone who has read Seth Godin or David Meerman Scott’s work likely has heard of Blendtec. They have used this company as a shining example of how to implement new marketing techniques. For some reason I had heard about these cool videos over and over again, but never watched one. Finally I had watched the iPhone one – very cool!
3. Bad PR Pitch #7132: From Baskin Robbins? by The Business Blog At Intuitive.com. One of the things I love about this blog is Dave Taylor’s sense of humor. He literally posts the best bad correspondence he receives from companies. I love the irony of this one!
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
Alexa Rank – 7.30.09
by John R. Sedivy
As of our last monitoring of our Alexa rank as documented in “Alexa Rank – 7.29.09” we had a rank of 310,125. Our current rank as reported by Sparky is 307,452 a decrease of 2,673 from yesterday. Here are the next five websites that we are aware of with their corresponding rank:
1. WP-Smooth – 285,450 (Increased 6,665)
2. Global Sugar Art – 284,345 (Decreased 1,763)
3. Harry Winston – 260,001 (Decreased 609)
4. Cake Journal – 259,703 (Increased 928)
5. Hitsville – 251,912 (Decreased 6,802)
Although the individual ranks have changed, the order has pretty much remained the same, with exception to Global Sugar Art and WP-Smooth which have swapped places. This is due to an increase by WP-Smooth with a corresponding decrease by Global Sugar Art.
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
Inspiration Strikes…
by John R. Sedivy
…at the most unlikely of times. So it is with “Flash of Genius” a story about a Detroit professor who invented the intermittent windshield wiper in his garage. The most fascinating aspect is that this is a problem that stumped Ford Motor Company and other U.S. automakers for years. Yet a lone inventor cracked this tough nut in the confines of his garage with his family.
The inventor Bob Kearns, trustingly hands over his prototype to Ford executives who state they need to send it to Washington D.C. for government testing and verification of adherence to their vehicle standards. Upon receiving the prototype, Ford is no longer interested, however the intermittent wiper function appears to be showing up in new Ford and other U.S. automaker model cars. A coincidence? Bob Kearns didn’t think so.
The essence of this movie is the legal and ethical struggle the inventor has with his corporate counterparts. I had first heard of this movie through a reference in a Wired article called “Beyond Detroit: On The Road To Recovery, Let The Little Guys Drive”. I checked it out as I had never heard of it – and in hindsight I am glad I did. Similar to “Alexander” this movie received poor to average reviews overall, but was really good if you want to learn a thing or two and watch a compelling story. Here is what I learned:
1. Crowdsourcing works
2. Ethics
I will discussed each of the these in greater detail.
Crowdsourcing
I have discussed crowdsourcing to some extent on this blog. For the basics of crowdsourcing refer to my article “The Power Of Crowds” – as a basic refresher, crowdsourcing is the power of individuals and groups of people who have a knack for problem-solving. These crowds may or may not – but often do not have financial incentive to do so. They are generally amateur hobbyists who love problem-solving and as a result of their love for the task, can and actually have outperformed their professional counterparts. Innovation strikes at the most unlikely of places. One man managed to do what many highly paid, well educated engineers could not – this is the power of the crowd.
Ethics
A major theme of this movie is that of ethics – doing the right thing. Bob Kearns notes early in the movie the ethical choice that an engineer (or any person for that matter) will face one day in their career. He notes that an engineer created the artificial heart, while another created a German death camp. One engineer created an invention that has the power to save many lives, while the other to extinguish lives. Throughout the film Bob Kearns is shown to be at a crossroads many times – ultimately choosing to do the right thing, but like many a choice, your conscious, or the right answer is not easy, and does not come without cost.
At least a few times in “Flash of Genius” Ford attempts to settle with Bob Kearns for increasingly large sums of money. Although this weighs heavily on him and his family, he ultimately decides to stay the course and fight the good fight. He would have even settled for a small amount of money, he just wanted recognition that the auto giant stole his idea and to give him rightly credit. His ethics fueled his passion, not a drive for money or material gain.
I couldn’t help but think throughout this movie that Ford would have been better off working with Bob Kearns as an ally instead of an enemy. Working together they could have been a formidable force, instead they were divided and both were distracted by a costly and emotional lawsuit. In my opinion Ford was very short sighted – less expensive to take the idea than share the profits with the inventor. I could not help but draw a parallel with the story of Tesla and Edison. Unfortunately this is the sort of short sighted behavior that has led to our current economic crisis.
Closing Thoughts
I found it interesting that I had not heard of this story before, even in the news. It is entirely possible that I missed it as I was not specifically looking for it. Amy also mentioned that she had never heard the story of Bob Kearns and his fight for credit for the intermittent windshield wiper. In fact, she had mentioned that during her coursework for her business degree they had used Ford as a case study for how to be ethical. The way Ford is portrayed in this movie I hope their vehicle standards are higher than their ethical standards. Between the Pinto and the intermittent wiper there are a least a couple case studies there!
I recommend this movie if you are interested in a good story, good acting with a few well known names. I also really enjoyed the crowdsourcing and ethics themes – and of course the battle of the underdog. Probably even a few things to be aware of if you are an entrepreneur or small business owner. Definitely worth checking out!
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
