Can’t See Your Desk?

“A cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind.”

How did such a filthy studio produce such clean paintings?

Whether you take umbrage at that statement, or whether you find yourself nodding in agreement, is probably a safe indicator of your own desk’s state of tidiness.
  
So we have here, once again, a clash. A dichotomy. Once again we have a way of dividing ourselves against ourselves. As if we didn’t have enough of those.

Those of the uncluttered persuasion will tell you that there’s a place for everything, and everything should darn well be in its place. It’s a matter of productivity, they say. Neatness and organization provide the tools and empowerment to get work done quickly, efficiently, and accurately.

Meanwhile, the denizens of the other end of the spectrum tell you that where you see clutter, they see an unconventional yet workable filing system. Of course they know where everything can be found — every pile and overstuffed desk drawer represents a logical progression of tasks and relationships.

Besides, they say, if you’re spending so much time organizing your workstation, how much work can you actually be getting done?

Sigh. Can’t we all just get along?

Here’s a thought: Maybe both sides are right. Now before you accuse us of being wishy-washy, let us assure you that this isn’t just a theoretical group hug we’re advocating here. We speak from experience.

Within these hallowed halls of Caler&Company (What? They’re hallowed to us…) you can find both cluttered desks, and desks that veritably shimmer with immaculateness. Some members of our team are called to alphabetize their paperclips, and some of us need to dig archaeological trenches to find last month’s expense reports.

And it doesn’t matter a bit. Not as long as we’re creating powerful marketing communications that get results for our clients. (We totally are.)

Because what works for each of us is, unsurprisingly, that which works for each of us. Trying to force our Oscar Madisons into Felix Unger-shaped pigeonholes wouldn’t just be futile, it’d be counterproductive. It would mess with this precious success-formula of ours. We can’t have that.

Maybe this philosophy would work for your business? It just might. Give it a try. Instead of driving wedges between your neatniks and your paper-hoarders, try just letting them be themselves. If they give you their best work, you know you’re on the right track.

And if you still need a dichotomy, then try this one on for size: If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what's an empty desk a sign of?

The C4:

1. The hullabaloo between those who neatly organize their desks, and those who, um, don’t, is getting a little nasty. The two sides have gone beyond questioning each other’s work methods. Seems like they’re now questioning each others' sanity, patriotism, and commitment to the survival of mankind.
2. Which means we’re taking taking this way too seriously. It comes down to this: It’s your desk. Can you find everything you need? Can you get your work done? Can you not just perform, but excel? Then great — organize (or disorganize) anyway you choose.
3. That’s how we run things here. At Caler&Company, we’re judged on our results, not the state of our desktops. Makes sense, doesn’t it? There’s more than enough divisiveness to go around.
4. For example, much as we love our coworkers, would you believe that come Sunday, some of these people are going to be rooting for the wrong team? Now that is truly a sign of some kind of messed-up mind.

Huddle Up, Stakeholders

We’re reaching out to you today so we can put a stake in the ground, grab for the low-hanging fruit, and think outside the box.

You may not have noticed, but there’s been this juggernaut of jargon that’s taken over the business lexicon.

Seems like a no-brainer now, but back when we started talking this way, we thought it was a game changer. A win-win proposition. We were speaking the same language, mangling the same metaphors, and we really thought every conversation would be value-added — bringing us more bang for the buck.

Well, it brought about a paradigm shift, all right. It moved the needle…but in the wrong direction. Turns out we’ve become parodies of ourselves. Irritating ones at that.

Drilling down into the problem, we find the stigma of cliché, and the way that the overuse of tired, misapplied jargon actually weakens our messaging. Dive deeper, and you see that talking like a rigidly programmed Business Bot destroys your differentiation. You become plain vanilla, just another face in the crowd.

You’ve got a lot on your plate, we know. This probably wasn’t even on your radar. We’re not asking you to reinvent the wheel, but going forward, maybe you can repurpose some of this drivel? Transition it into another role?

At the end of the day, your communications skills are seen by your customers, competitors and employees as key performance indicators, showing them just how much bandwidth you’ve got for your core competencies. If they think you’re just parroting the masses, well then you might as well be down the rabbit hole.

Death to jargon, is what we’re saying. Do we have your buy-in?

The C4

1. The definitive guide to effective communications, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style includes every rule of English usage you can imagine.
2. Seriously, read it. It’ll make you a better writer and speaker. (And it will turn you against insipid jargon, forever.)
3. Its most vital advice, which if we follow it will end jargoneering for all time (amen), can be summed up in one very short sentence…
4. “Omit needless words.”

Do We Always Stand Still When We Do Nothing?

Activity does not always equal action.

What sort of challenges and tribulations were waiting for you when you showed up for work this morning? Weren’t there leftover problems from yesterday, all mixed up and merged with the new ones that cropped up overnight?

Managing that never-ending flow of issues might not be fun, but what choice do we have? Can you even imagine a world of smooth-flowing business and a lack of crises? It might sound utopian, but surely you must realize: it would be a little eerie.

Maybe even a little boring.

So this is the business model we’re stuck with: problems arise, we address them, then we await the next problem. C’est la vie. Viva la business.

But here’s one of the dangers of being the habitual problem-solvers we are: We come to think that action, any action, in the face of challenge is virtue. Action, we think, is always preferable to inaction.

It calls to mind the scene of the man searching for his keys under the light of a streetlamp. He’s fairly certain that’s not where he dropped them, but that’s where he’s searching, because that’s where the light is.

We’re in danger of acting just as irrationally when we jump to our feet, thump our chests and wave our arms in the air at the first sign of trouble. We’re driven to act, or more accurately, to react, because a leader must confront problems. That imperative can be so all-consuming that sometimes we forget to ask the most elementary leadership questions, like Is action even necessary at this point?

Action requires a plan. A plan requires fully understanding the problem and what a successful outcome looks like. Activity may make things worse. Action is better. Sometimes doing nothing helps the drama to subside so the real problem can be assessed. Never confuse activity with action.

It goes against the grain, but sometimes the best response is to do nothing. Or at least, wait until the sun comes up, and then search for the keys where they really might be.

The C4:

1. Business, like everything else, is governed by inertia. That’s great for growth and upward trajectory, but it instills a mindset. It leads us to think that activity is action, and that all our actions drive us forward.
   
   
2. No, sometimes it’s just busywork. Just the spinning of wheels. Sometimes we force ourselves to act, in response to events or sometimes in response to nothing at all, without stopping to wonder if inaction might have been the better course.
   
   
3. Your business may be in motion (of course it is) but that doesn’t mean you always have to be in motion, too. Your acumen, instincts, and best judgment might well advise you to take it slow, to be deliberative, to keep still and wait to see what happens. If that’s what your inner voice is telling you, then listen.
   
   
4. Yup, it comes down to a judgment call. You decide when to jump, and when to sit still. Sorry hoss, but that’s the gig you signed up for.

We Love A Great Interface

But not instead of face-to-face.

Here’s the next great mobile app that needs to be developed: you point your phone at someone else’s, push a button, and instantly beam them a message that says “Hey, I’m over here! Please look up and talk to me!”

We’re the same as you — we love our phones. They’re like mini-offices we carry around in our pockets. They’ve elevated our productivity to stratospheric heights. They’ve made us more connected than we ever could have imagined.

But paradoxically, they’ve also disconnected us from this analog life. There’s a bright, 3-D world going on all around us, full of wonder, beauty, and face-to-face interaction, which we ignore every time we turn our attention to that tiny screen. 

Marketing blogger Christina Childers shares an instructive anecdote about an industry trade show she attended where the vast majority of the vendors were only interested in playing with their phones.

How many customers walked away unacknowledged? How much business went undone? Maybe more importantly — how many simple, invaluable human connections were missed?

We’re not trying to turn back the clock here. We know that the digital lifestyle, the ubiquitousness of handheld devices, is here to stay. And we’re more than fine with that. We revel in it.

But we revel also in a simple, good old-fashioned conversation. We like eye contact. We live for smiles.

So we ask you to ask yourself: are your screen-gazing habits interfering with that? Are you checking your messages more often than you’re checking your surroundings?

If so, the solution couldn’t be simpler. Just put that thing down for a moment, look up, and give us a smile.

The C4

1. We won’t claim to be without fault here. We look at our phones a lot. They’re nifty little devices that streamline our communications, our business practices, and (let’s admit it) our entertainment. So yes, we look at 'em...probably more than we should.
2. But if you ever catch us ignoring our clients, our friends and co-workers, or our families in favor of pixels, please remind us how unspeakably inappropriate that is.
3. A lot of folks need just such a reminder. We all know this is true.
4. It shouldn’t be that way. Normal interaction shouldn’t suffer because of technology. And it doesn’t have to. Just think it over every time you reach for your phone. Ask yourself if now is an appropriate time to look at it. If the answer is no, then put it away.

Are You At The Tipping Point?

Here's a tip for you.

It's gracious to leave a gratuity. It’s tactful to tip. The word itself was derived from "to insure promptness."

Tipping is a cultural marker. Our European friends are sometimes a bit bemused by the amount of brain sweat we expend in calculating just the right amount to leave for our restaurant servers, our hotel porters, and our coffee-crafting baristas.

But still, it’s central to our culture. It’s built into the way we do business and recreation. Offshore outsiders might look in and shake their heads, but from our perspective it’s an ironclad clause in our social contract.

Tipping is not optional. It simply isn’t.

You know that nationwide, the average hourly wage for restaurant workers is adjusted down to something like $2.13, with the assumption that tips — which must be shared among the entire front-of-house staff — will comprise the majority of the employees’ take-home. Still, even with tips, the median earnings for non-fast-food restaurant workers is less than $9.00 per hour. That’s less than poverty level for a worker supporting a couple of kids.

This report demonstrates how technology is coming to the aid of one chronically under-tipped class — coffee-shop workers. DipJar, a card-swipe-enabled electronic tip jar, allows patrons to quickly authorize preset fund transfers in increments starting at $1. It’s been rolled out to a few independent coffee counters across Manhattan, and is expected to spread nationwide.

Another burgeoning tip-trend, a somewhat less positive one, is that of customer shaming. Servers are snapping pics of less-than-generous receipts and sharing them online. The results have been ugly: reputations have been ruined and people have lost their jobs.

It’s a shame it stoops to that level. Because — let’s say it again together — tipping is not optional. It’s an indelible line item expense for a night out. Or at least it should be.

It’s just this easy: 20 or 25 percent (You can figure that in your head!) for most restaurant bills and cab fares; a buck or two to your bartender, barista, or porter. Do it because it’s the right thing to do, and an irreplaceable part of their wages.

Or do it for the stick rather than the carrot. Tip because you are being judged. You might escape public shaming, but your dinner partners — family, friends, maybe even business associates — are watching. “Character is how you treat those who can do little for you,” goes a currently popular refrain. Demonstrate due consideration for the workers who’ve taken good care of you and your guests, and you’ve demonstrated enviable character.

People notice that sort of thing, and they remember it.

The C4

1. People use all sorts of excuses to under-tip, or to skip tipping altogether. “They don’t tip in Europe,” they say, or “A night out is expensive enough as it is.” True, perhaps, but irrelevant.
2. Because in our society, a proper gratuity is part of the expense of going out or receiving certain services. We have some leeway in how much we choose to tip, and true enough, we can choose not to tip. But even though we have the freedom to choose that option, we never should.
3. The servers and workers who rely on those tips are hurt financially every time folks like us decide not to tip. These are people already living on the margins of wage stability, yet they greet us with warmth and smiles and they do their best to make us feel at home. It’s a crime not to reward that with gratuity.
4. And if that doesn’t convince you, maybe fear will. You don’t want to be tagged as a bad tipper, do you? Stiff a server and maybe you won’t make the news, but someone will notice. And that someone will think a bit less of you. In the end your reputation and your self-respect are really all you have. Take this tip and preserve those things, by doing what you know is right every time.  

Should We Differentiate?

If you can, yes, but it may be short-lived.

We may be your favorite marketing gurus, but we’re probably not your only ones. And we’re probably not the only ones hitting you up with this familiar bit of advice: “You’ve got to differentiate yourself from the competition.”

Which is, generally speaking, true. But within generalizations hide a minefield of caveats and exceptions. To whit: what if you’re engaged in one of the countless industries where differentiation is well-nigh impossible?

Within several blocks from the office in which we toil, there are several full-service mechanics to be found. While they’re in no way identical, the differences between their prices, services offered, guarantees, etc. are narrow enough to be almost unquantifiable. Clearly, their customers are choosing them for some other reason than, “This mechanic is utterly unlike all the rest.”

Similarly, even those companies that do have the ability differentiate themselves, certainly don’t have the ability to sustain that advantage forever. Success inspires copying. And copying erodes differentiation.

Some businesses choose to tilt at windmills, by way of fighting that. Their lawsuits and cease-and-desist attempts might, if they’re lucky, scare off the most skittish of copiers. But there are always less-skittish competitors lined up to take their place.

So differentiation, while often important, can’t be seen as a viable tactic for everyone, nor a long-term strategy for anyone. The solution, as always, is to be the best at knowing your business. Know where and how differentiation is possible — and know, likewise, if and when it’s not.

If you can differentiate yourself, do so. But do so with the knowledge that it’s a short-term proposition at best. If it’s not possible, or if it’s run its course, find other sustainable competitive advantages that keep you in the forefront of your customer’s consciousness.

Competition is challenging. It’s among the few true zero-sum games that real life throws at us. With stakes that high, it’s just good business sense to rely on a toolbox’s worth of advantages, rather than cliched, one-size-fits-all ideas.

The C4:

1. Differentiation is a marketing buzzword. There, we said it. It does make sense for some of our clients — maybe even a lot of our clients. But like most buzz-concepts, it’s over-used and over-relied upon. It’s time to correct that.
   
2. Because, let’s face it, differentiation isn’t possible for everyone. There are products and services — commodities, mostly — that will bear little differentiation in the marketplace. To try to force it upon them looks absurd. Do not look absurd in the eyes of your customers.
   
3. But maybe you don’t sell commodities, and maybe you’re well positioned to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Great! By all means, do so. But every dollar you make from that strategy is a dollar’s worth of incentive for your competitors to copy you. Differences don’t last, is what we’re saying.
   
4. What’s the solution? There isn’t a single solution, and that’s precisely the point. Differentiation might be a useful marketing tool for you. Then again, it might not be. All we can tell you at this point is there are a slew of strategies and tactics that are right for you. Walk through our door, sit down and talk with us, and we’ll discover your unique story, together.

Let Your Fingers Do The Walking

...and clicking.

First, a couple disclaimers here: Yes, we know the Yellow Pages have never really gone away. Just like you, we receive ours every year — they clutter the porch then plop into the recycling bin, often without ever being opened.

Second: No, we don’t want to wind back the clock. We love today’s technology, and we’re awed by the fact that in lieu of letting our fingers do the walking, we can type and click and within seconds find the businesses we’re looking for, get a synopsis of consumer reviews, and map out detailed driving directions.

But — the Yellow Pages! From a marketing perspective there are things about the Yellow Pages unmatched by anything online.

For instance, say you’re a plumber. Ask yourself, what is it you offer your customers? You might answer: fast service, free estimates, and satisfaction guaranteed. Great.

Now flip open the Yellow Pages, and see what every other plumber in the city offers. It’s a quick reality check, and a prod to get busy differentiating yourself from the competition.

Nowhere else can you get such targeted business intelligence about your local competition, their strengths and weaknesses, and what they’re saying to lure away your customers. It helps you hone your message and define your Unique Selling Proposition — that pithy description of why you and you alone should be their provider of choice.

So as long as businesses are still advertising in the Yellow Pages (and they are), so should you. And you should be using it as a resource, too.

In fact, go get it right now. It’s probably still there, waiting on your porch.

The C4:

1. The Yellow Pages — not yellowpages.com but the old fashioned annual phone directory. It’s become something between an anachronism and a punchline by now. But it still exists, businesses still advertise in it, and consumers (much fewer but still notable numbers) still consult it.
2. For local businesses, it’s an intelligence tool. Within a few conveniently alphabetical pages you can check out all your competition, and see what they’re saying they offer.
3. And that should influence what you say. To win over customers you differentiate yourself. Let your Yellow Pages perusing help you figure out what you offer that they don’t. Then let that become your Unique Selling Proposition.
4. Market accordingly. Build a marketing communications strategy around your uniqueness. Emphasize it in all your consumer-oriented messaging. And yes, that includes your ad in the Yellow Pages.

Let Go of the Past, Embrace the Future

Open wide your windows of opportunity.

Not exactly controversial advice, right? But when that past includes equity and proven success, it tends to make an alternative future that much more uncertain. And this makes letting go of the one and embracing the other all the harder.

Still, it happens. We’ve seen it happen twice in recent weeks, with both Microsoft and Avis bidding farewell to iconic marketing elements, and moving on to something new. This was brave of them…but was it wise?

In Avis’ case, they’ve stopped using a marketing slogan that has for half a century defined them as a determined rental-car underdog. “We Try Harder” was their 1962 answer to their second-place status to Hertz. All these decades later Avis is still following Hertz, but has at last ceased advertising that fact. Instead, they’re concentrating on their core market, business travelers, by adopting the position “It’s Your Space.” They’re attempting to tout all the amenities they offer busy people on the go, which is probably a smart strategy. But “We Try Harder” has been around for generations; Avis is mistaken if they think their customers will forget it anytime soon.

Then there’s Microsoft.

That company has stirred up both tech and design observers — two opinionated groups if there ever were any — by replacing their 25-year-old logo and branding. The “wavy windows” look is gone, but what’s in its place is eerily familiar. We now have a bold, sans-serif rendering of the company name, next to a symmetrical four-color window grid. In terms of branding updates, this one is more like baby steps.

That hasn’t quieted the sounding-off, though. Some are saying that the placid, 2D windows look like an antithesis of technology. Others say the design is clean, simple and memorable. What’s probably a win from Microsoft’s point of view is that people are talking about it.

These sorts of updates are never easy, in that they’re a letting go of often beloved elements of a company’s history. On the other hand, such elements almost always eventually date themselves, and must be let go (take a look at Microsoft’s original 1975 logo if you don’t believe us). Either way, it’s a gamble.

And like all business gambles, these ones will ultimately be settled in the marketplace.

The C4:

1. In business theory, the idea of letting go of the past and embracing the future is a no-brainer. In practice, it’s trickier. When do you let go of something that’s served you well? When do you try something new? Often the right answer only becomes clear in hindsight, often when you realize you’ve chosen poorly.
2. Nevertheless, Avis and Microsoft have both moved boldly, relinquishing tried and true marketing elements and replacing them with something brand new. Avis, in focusing on service to business travelers, risks the question, “Aren’t you guys trying harder anymore?” And Microsoft has raised the scorn of logo critics, who say the simple new design ill represents one of the world’s leading tech companies.
3. Those reactions are worrisome, but what were these companies to do? They’ve both broken with decades-old traditions—something most of us would argue has to be done sooner or later. Whether their decisions are smart or self-damaging perhaps is just a matter of timing.
    
4. So did they time it right? Or did they shoot themselves in the foot? The answer is entirely up to the customers of these companies. The jury’s out, and deliberations are underway.

A Wealth of Ideas

Don’t let them go fallow.

There’s a precious business asset that is ultimately responsible for all success. It costs nothing to own, so it’s present at every startup. Amazingly, though, some businesses stop using it. They let it go fallow, forgotten.

We’re speaking of creativity, the art of ideas.

You were creative when you went into business. You must have been. You must have devised something new and untested. You thought of a new way of delivering services, or an innovative way to sell a product.

Which is laudable, of course. But how creative were you today? How creative will you be next week? You’re not sitting back and letting your earliest ideas define your future, are you?

The most creative companies — Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and others — constantly innovate because they encourage their people to constantly create. Many set aside up to 20% of their employees’ time to work on emerging ideas. A lot of those ideas, maybe even most, go nowhere. But there’s brilliance enough in the rest to make the exercise worthwhile.

We said creativity costs nothing to own, and that’s true (hint: you were born with it, as was everyone you know). That doesn’t mean it’s free to nurture, though. It takes time and care and a loving environment. It’s rather skittish. Demand it to come forth and it’ll run and hide. Be gentle and inviting and it’ll trot right up and feed from your hand.

There’s creativity permeating your organization. Everyone for whom you sign a paycheck is teeming with ideas, ideas that have the potential of catapulting your success.

All you have to do is let it happen.

The C4:

1. Creativity was the founding asset of every business, and it’s the cause of every future success. Some businesses forget this at their peril, thinking that first good idea was all they’ll ever need. That’s folly.
2. Smart businesses realize that a constantly changing world calls for constant new ideas. They foster creativity as a way of eternally reinventing themselves.
3. Creativity is free, but harnessing it for business success takes investment. Invest in the time and environment needed for a free flow of ideas, and those ideas will greatly repay you.
4. Creativity abounds. You’re a font of ideas, so are your managers and entry-levels. So is the guy who cleans the floor. There’s a wealth of this resource all around you. Harvest it.

A Foreign Way of Doing Business?

Are business practices universal?

There are countries with bureaucracies so corrupt that it’s said to be impossible to license a car or pull a building permit without the greasing of many palms.

American companies seeking to do business in these countries — in any country in fact — are under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977, which applies American law, and perhaps even American morality, to overseas commerce. In a nutshell, the law states that Americans can be prosecuted at home for bribery abroad.

On its face the FCPA seems righteous, responsible and correct. It promotes honesty and fair practice, even in nations that can’t or won’t promote these things for themselves. And it ensures that American businesses represent our country and our way of life in the best light possible.

But couldn’t it be that the FCPA is hamstringing American commerce, especially when we’re competing against economic powers operating under no such strictures? If there are truly places where business is impossible without graft, aren’t we effectively closing those territories to American businesses by holding them to the FCPA?

You might recall the recent Walmart controversy, wherein the retailer was accused of FCPA violations while operating in Mexico. This case might seem cut and dry, but the question begs: could Walmart have operated at all in Mexico, without those bribes?

We like to think morality is absolute. It would be nice if that were so. But ideals of fair business practice are clearly not universal, or at least they’re not universally enforced. We have to wonder if our moral high ground, as enshrined in the FCPA, isn’t ultimately self-defeating.

The C4:

1. The FCPA was enacted in 1977 to prevent American businesses from engaging in corrupt practices abroad.
2. Walmart has recently been accused of FCPA violations for bribing Mexican officials.  
3. We wonder if adherence to the FCPA doesn’t put American companies at a disadvantage, when competing against companies and nations who obey no such laws.
4. This is a distressingly gray area and we’d love to hear your opinion: should morality be absolute, or should we afford our businesses the leeway necessary to compete?

Keep ’Em Close

Defeat? Yes. Destroy? No.

Competition is healthy. That’s something businesspeople grasp almost intuitively. We understand that competition creates efficiencies and forces us to better serve our customers. It can even make our work more enjoyable. Some of us thrive on competition and enjoy the fact that it brings out the best in us.

But it can also bring out the worst. Quick self-diagnosis: Do you consider your competitor to be your mortal enemy? Ever use words like “destroy,” “bury” or “scorched earth” when describing your competitive plans?

Now that’s not healthy.    

There are very few industries in which competition is a zero-sum game. In other words, your competitor’s successes are not necessarily your failures. Thinking of them as such only leads to ugliness in the marketplace.

Instead, focus on areas of possible collaboration. Are there projects in which you and your competitor can form a strategic alliance? Failing that, can you pool resources to influence public policy on behalf of your industry at large?

If nothing else, just have a conversation. Take a lunch every now and then to talk through differences or just get to know each other. You don’t have to be best friends, but you should come to accept each other as decent human beings just trying to earn a living.

We’re all just trying to earn a living, but chances are, we’re all someone’s competitor. And it’ll take all our efforts to make sure that competition stays healthy instead of turning into something ugly.

The C4:

1. Business competition drives market efficiencies and creates choices for the consumer. All else being equal, it’s a positive force for our economy.
2. But competition can turn ugly. It’s all too easy (and far too common) to dehumanize our competitors and to work toward their destruction.
3. That’s not healthy and it’s not good for our economy. Competition is about finding an equilibrium. Very little in business is zero-sum. There is room for success for all of us.
4. Look for common ground. Look for areas of cooperation. Keep lines of communication open. Compete, by all means, but remember you’re competing with decent people who tuck their kids into bed at night. Hopefully they’ll remember the same about you.

Best Buy (Before It’s Too Late)

Big losses alter course for big box retailer.

Are the days of big-box retailing coming to an end? Best Buy fears they might be.

Best Buy is moving to reverse their thus-far unprofitable year (they’ve reported a loss of nearly $2 billion in the quarter ending March 3) by shuttering 50 stores between now and the end of 2013.

But they’re not stopping there. Best Buy has studied the dynamics of their loss and concluded that the ways consumers buy electronics have irrevocably shifted. The big-box model, which is in large part how Best Buy has always done business, just isn’t working anymore. Online retailers offer a wider range of big-ticket items (plasma TVs, computers, game consoles) at prices with which the brick-and-mortar sellers — especially ones with big-box rent to pay — simply can’t compete.

So what do you do when your business model crumbles before your eyes? You can give up, of course. Or you can innovate. You can — pardon the pun — think outside the box.

Best Buy is trying a two-pronged approach. Think of them as dueling experiments. First, they’re inaugurating so-called “Connected Stores,” a sort of big-box lite, averaging about 20% smaller in terms square footage and designed with an emphasis on customer service and speedy shopping. Second, they’ll be opening a chain of much smaller outlets concentrating almost exclusively on mobile products. In both cases, and with the surviving big-boxes, they’ll be beefing up loyalty programs and offering free shipping wherever applicable.

Their solutions are yet unproven. Best Buy might yet go the way of Circuit City (remember them?) but they’ll not go down without a fight. They’re fighting the best way a business can: with innovation. Hats off to that.

The C4:

1. In Q4 2011 (which ended March 3, 2012), Best Buy suffered losses of $1.7 billion, or $4.89 per share.
2. In response, the company is moving to close 50 stores, eliminate an additional 400 corporate jobs and cut around $800 million in costs before the end of 2013.
3. They’re also trying to shake up their business model, by testing alternatives to their traditional big-box approach, and with an increased emphasis on customer service.
4. Win or lose, and with all respect to those about to lose their jobs, Best Buy deserves respect for trying to innovate their way back to success.

What motivates an entrepreneur?

The urge to create may be high on the list.

There are probably as many answers to that as there are entrepreneurs. Popular opinion, however, holds that there are some similarities: entrepreneurs are seen as brash risk-takers, somewhat abrasive, always impulsive (we’re thinking of you, The Donald).

But are such generalizations fair? Probably not. Personality traits aside, the one thing that motivates most entrepreneurs is that which forms their signature achievement: the urge to create.

The specifics of that are varied. Some build companies within their fields of expertise because they’ve developed valuable innovations. Others enter unfamiliar markets when they sense a challenge or opportunity. But in every case they are inspired to create a new entity — their own unique company — where none had existed before.

Brash? Maybe. But certainly not in any negative sense.

As for risk-taking, the risks are inherent. Every venture risks failure or worse. But when entrepreneurs stake their fortunes and reputations, will they gamble with undue risks? Not likely.

It’s far more accurate to say that an entrepreneur is, whenever possible, a risk eliminator. An entrepreneur evaluates risks, weighs outcomes and chooses the path that offers the highest return with the best chance for success.

That chance for success is ultimately the most driving motivation for entrepreneurship. Maybe it requires a dash of brashness and a modicum of risk-taking. The payoff is worth it, though, for the entrepreneur and for all of society.

Bring on the brashness, we say, and hooray for the entrepreneurs.

The C4:

1. Entrepreneurs are creators at heart.
2. They are not intrinsically brash risk-takers.
3. They rock at starting but not necessarily at maintaining new ventures.
4. Without them, we would all be in big trouble.

Learn more about how we help start-ups.

Steady at The Helm

A tsunami in Asia can bring us to the brink of recession, and a rumor of agreement among European financiers can send our markets soaring. An odd side effect of our global interconnectedness is that so much of our economic fate seems beyond our control.

Maybe so. But that's no excuse for us, as businesspeople, to take our hands from the tiller. Fair winds or foul may blow from beyond our horizons, yet we remain captains of our own ships.

Or how about a landlubber's metaphor: go ahead and see the forest for the trees, but remember the trees still matter. Tend to your basics: take care of your customers; buy low and sell high.

Global markets will bring the unexpected. Temper that by controlling what you can, and by always applying your best business practices.

Distant gales might still rock your boat, but you'll be better prepared than most to ride them out.