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HINDSIGHT - WRITE SOMETHING WORTH READING ABOUT OR DO SOMETHING WORTH WRITING ABOUT
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
1871 AND YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO LAUNCH COMMUNITY-WIDE SEXUAL HARASSMENT AWARENESS INITIATIVES WITH JOINT PROGRAM
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Saturday, March 17, 2018
New INC Magazine Blog Post by 1871 CEO Howard Tullman
Let's Give Bruno a Break
The performer got targeted in a
social media debate about his work. The debate may be phony, or stupid, but
there's a real lesson to learn about how quickly your customers can evolve.
CEO, 1871@tullman
I feel really bad for
Bruno Mars because he’s stuck in the middle of one of these stupid, click-bait
driven, social media debates about whether he’s grateful enough and vocal
enough about the influences that “black” music has had on his own work. Apparently,
no matter how much or how often you say “thank you” these days and prostrate
yourself to the memories of those gone before, it’s never sufficient for the
trolls and the haters. So, we’re subjected to a 140-character debate about
cultural appropriation by a bunch of know-nothings and two-thumb typers who can
barely spell, much less understand what they’re talking about. I’m just glad
that Mick and JT have never had to go through this kind of knee-jerk noise. And
Elvis would be rolling in his grave if there was room enough in the casket for
him to move that bloated body around.
However, these people
aren’t entirely worthless because they can always serve as a bad example - a
stirring demonstration of exactly what not to do. You can learn a lot from
Luddites. The important lesson for entrepreneurs is buried deep in the trivial
and utterly immaterial observations of these critics. It’s about how quickly
and easily concepts, ideas, language, thoughts - and especially expectations -
can jump around from person to person, place to place, and industry to industry
in today’s hyper-connected and high-speed digital world.
My takeaway is all about customers and competition. We see this
same kind of behavior in every kind of competition. Many years ago, every high
jumper laughed at a guy named Dick Fosbury and his crazy Fosbury Flop technique-;
until he won gold at the 1968 Olympics with a record-setting leap. Then
everyone jumped in and copied his technique.
I always say that the expectations
of customers are "perpetually progressive," which
simply means that they (we) can't help themselves from continually raising the
bar. Which means that you've got to keep getting better and better in your
business (product, service, support, speed, etc.) all the time because what was
yesterday's miracle is tomorrow's "so what?"
Like it or not, we’re
all living in a “what have you done for me lately?” world. And to make things
even worse, your competition never sleeps; they’re ready, willing, and able to
step right up and grab any unhappy customers if you lose a step or two or start
taking anything or anybody for granted. No one owns the customer today;
switching costs are minimal; people’s choices are virtually unlimited; and
locked-in and loyal consumers are a sure thing only as long as you keep
delivering the goods.
But the new
news is that the state of the competition has changed and you need to make sure
that you aren’t spending too much of your time looking through the rear-view
mirror or trying to measure your performance and success against the wrong bars
(traditional and too low) and the wrong ball players (too few and too narrow a
view).
The most important
competition today for the time, attention and dollars of your customers isn’t
in your own backyard. It’s not in your silo or limited to the set of standard
competitors that you have always benchmarked your business against because
that’s simply too low a bar and too modest a target. The competition today for
the hearts and minds of your customers - listen closely - is the last great
experience (sales or service) that they’ve had, whenever and wherever that took
place. Whether or not it has anything directly to do with you or your business
doesn’t matter. That’s simply how the consumer keeps score today.
You need a new mindset and it starts with a simple
acknowledgement. In today’s one-stop world, you’re competing against the likes
of Amazon even if they aren’t yet selling the same stuff or services that you
are - if that’s even possible anymore given that they have virtually everything
at the Everything Store. You’re competing against the most trusted brand in
America and you’re competing with the ways (every way) that Amazon does
business. Speed, access and convenience trump everything else. Once we
experience this hyper-speed anywhere in our lives, we immediately bump up the
bar, raise our expectations, and apply the same new standards to everything
else in our lives. This is a case of appropriation uber alles and every one of us is guilty of it
because that’s basic human nature. Who doesn’t want more and better anything
and everything?
Amazon isn’t alone in setting the curve in the “right now”
economy. You can get an on-demand flu shot at Walgreens in 15 minutes these
days at your convenience. Why would you ever again beg some receptionist for an
appointment to go see your internist in three weeks, then take 3 hours out of
your day and spend several hundred bucks to accomplish essentially the same
thing. And you’ll probably catch the flu before you get around to the date of
your appointment anyway.
The bottom line: if
you treat your customers as if it’s business as usual, they won’t be back or be
your customers much longer. So, my advice is to “Be like Bruno” (with apologies
to Michael Jordan). Change up your game constantly, get out of your comfort
zone, look beyond your own four walls and your own marketplace, see who’s hit
it out of the park (last week or last century), rip them off politely, and then
do it better than they ever did.
Good artists copy;
great artists steal.
Thursday, March 15, 2018
1871 Welcomes Mayor Emanuel for Chicago Stories Live Podcast with 1871 CEO Howard Tullman
It's out! This week Chicago Stories had its first live podcast episode with @1871Chicago CEO @tullman. Listen and subscribe: https://t.co/azeALhzebd pic.twitter.com/OvK0V5sIXf— Mayor Rahm Emanuel (@ChicagosMayor) March 16, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2018
CONTACT:
Mayor’s Press Office
312.744.3334
Mayor Emanuel Interviews 1871
CEO Howard Tullman Live on Chicago Stories Podcast
For the first live episode on Chicago Stories, Mayor Emanuel sat
down with 1871 CEO Howard Tullman this week at Chicago’s leading tech
innovation space to look back at Howard’s career of reinvention, 1871’s world
leading expansion, and how Chicago became the global tech hub it is today.
Founded in 2012, 1871 takes its name not just from the Great
Chicago Fire, but from what happened next — the period of intense innovation
that combined engineers, architects, and investors to build the new city we
know today.
It’s that spirit of innovation that led 1871 to be ranked the
first in the world in the 2018 UBI Global List of Top University-Affiliated Businesses
Incubators.
Howard’s own Chicago story began as a student Northwestern
University, but his story as a Chicago tech leader began — of all things — as a
trial lawyer and criminal defense attorney. He specialized in Federal
litigation, and was even admitted to the Bar of the United States Supreme
Court. But after a decade in the field, he focus was turning to technology.
“In the course of those 10 years the computer really came into
existence as a business tool,” Howard said, “and at the end of the 10 years it
was more interesting to me to manage the information using the computers that
it was to continue to be a trial lawyer.”
So in 1980 Howard retired from his law career and reinvented
himself as a innovator and entrepreneur by starting the first of a series of
database and information-based computer businesses.
Since that time he’s seen Chicago transform itself as a hub of
tech entrepreneurship and innovation, particularly over the last four years
he’s led 1871.
Be sure to check out the full live podcast episode to hear
Mayor Emanuel and Howard talk about the difference between learning from
failure and learning from life, what makes Chicago’s tech community so unique,
the importance of giving back, and the latest updates on Chicago’s Hyperloop
and quest to land Amazon’s HQ2.
Listen and subscribe to Chicago Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud and Spotify.
ADDITIONAL QUOTES FROM HOWARD TULLMAN
“When we started, the core underlying idea was mobile was going to
change the world. Today, everything is digital, every business is
tech-enabled, so what’s the next set of hurdles? It could be and we’re building
in blockchain, we’re building in augmented reality, we’re building in machine
learning, we’re building in the Internet of Things downstairs on the fifth
floor.”
“You take the good lessons and the bad lessons and you apply
them.”
“Sticking to it beyond a certain point is not really the smartest
thing or the best thing to do.”
“Everybody is not going to be successful at everything they do.
The biggest thing is to decide if you’re digging a hole is when to stop digging
and when to do something else.”
“You’re not going to move the needle in a city by building
start-ups. You’re going to use and move the needle when those start-ups’
technology and disruptive innovations are adopted by large corporations, and
that really is where the impact occurs.”
“Entrepreneurs do not look backwards. We call this ‘in-game
amnesia.’ If you’re focused on what happened in the past, the shot you missed,
or an opportunity that you missed, you’re not paying attention to going ahead,
and so my focus has always been what’s next.”
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