Case Study: The Music Lovers | Peter Mehit

March 30, 2015March 30, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Everything that follows actually happened. I’ve changed the circumstances and identity of the people involved significantly, but the gist of the story is true. It’s at once proof of the old adage, ‘The truth will out’.

Sara and Tom have been friends since they worked on a successful advertising campaign for a major spirits producer. In their ten years as friends they’ve shared a lot: Holiday gatherings, the breakup of Tom’s marriage and their dreams of opening a music venue. Sara’s husband Bill was also good friends with Tom and supported their idea of opening the night club, up to the point pledging property he and Sara owned free and clear in San Francisco to secure start up money.

Because of their connections in the advertising and corporate worlds, Tom and Sara knew a lot of inside stuff. For example, they found out that a coastal city was pouring millions into a waterside development and had attracted several X Games type events to the area to take place in about two years time. Knowing this, the pair secured a lease on a large space in the heart of the development, negotiating a six month delay in rent payments.

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How To Make The Transition To Online Ordering Work For Your Customers | Getentrepreneurial.com

October 9, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

My cranberry experience was one of the worst online shopping experiences I have had this year! And it did make me realize that it’s a big step for any business, and perhaps an even bigger step for their customers, to make online shopping the only option. The question arises; should e-commerce be the only option? And what about the customers who don’t use computers; yes, they still exist; do they just fall by the wayside? How is your cranberry customer experience? This is a real life story:

The company which sells the best dried cranberries is Davis Lewis Orchards. The customer was my neighbor Mary Anne, who though she inherited her partner’s MacBook, only reads the news, and surfs modestly, and even today does not do email or any online ordering! She insists on a live person and telephone contact, and when asked for her email, smiles and says “Hello?” There is a segment of the population, usually over “a certain age” that does not use computers as we do. I’ve been doing email for close to 20 years and e-commerce for almost as long; in fact I tested some of the first e-commerce websites as a beta customer!

How Your Language Affects Your Wealth and Health | Scientific American

September 3, 2013September 3, 2013 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Does the language we speak determine how healthy and rich we will be? New research by Keith Chen of Yale Business School suggests so. The structure of languages affects our judgments and decisions about the future and this might have dramatic long-term consequences.

There has been a lot of research into how we deal with the future. For example, the famous marshmallow studies of Walter Mischel and colleagues showed that being able to resist temptation is predictive of future success. Four-year-old kids were given a marshmallow and were told that if they do not eat that marshmallow and wait for the experimenter to come back, they will get two marshmallows instead of one. Follow-up studies showed that the kids who were able to wait for the bigger future reward became more successful young adults.

Resisting our impulses for immediate pleasure is often the only way to attain the outcomes that are important to us. We want to keep a slim figure but we also want that last slice of pizza. We want a comfortable retirement, but we also want to drive that dazzling car, go on that dream vacation, or get those gorgeous shoes. Some people are better at delaying gratification than others. Those people have a better chance of accumulating wealth and keeping a healthy life style. They are less likely to be impulse buyers or smokers, or to engage in unsafe sex.