Extending the life cycle of a product and the importance of personality,ideas, emotions, strategy, excellent design, and CONNECTIVITY

Evolution of products used to be long-tail: Six years from design, manufacturing, and sales.  That’s changed: radically. Product development can be done anywhere: R+D can be done anywhere. So-so design can be done in many places and that means products  evolve and get better faster ergo-shorter, tighter life cycles.

The market place demands more-expects more-and gets more. Prices fall and rise based on commodities and the changing policies of governments, the willingness of private money and institutions to invest, and policy: All those factors are variable.

This means almost anything-anything, can be commoditized: Businesses are no longer applauded just for having a well-made product and sales teams don’t just win on ‘product knowledge’ alone.

What’s left? What can’t be dragged down into the morass of commodification and what questions should you ask about yourself and your company?

1. Personality: Do you have an attractive personality- are you a magnet? Is this reflected, infused, in your brand and company? Are you able to connect people with other people? Do people call you. Do people ask youto assist them, solve problems, and get things done? Is all this integrated into your companies’ brand and image. Personality decreases the disaster of commodification. Can your personality, difuse through your organization, renown, encourage consumers to purchase your products just past the conventional widom of when the product’s life-cycle is supposed to be over? Do you believe  you can remake your personality? You can: Mirror and study attractive personalities.
2. Ideas: Do you have great out-of-the-box ideas: Are they so compelling and powerful that they drive alliances and bring people together to assist you with your dream-make that dream their own, and, in partnership make real, what is your vision? Do you have many good ideas? Do you write them down? Do you share them with others-bringing them closer to you? Can your ideas singularly improve enough peoples’ lives and businesses that what you sell, and the company you own  turn the commodification tide and extend your product’s life-cycle?
3. Emotions: Do you care? Stop for a moment: Ponder this- Do you care? Do you empathize? Are you able to emote powerfully positive energy that compells others to join with you in bold visions-are you emotionally in tune with others? Do they feel better when you are around: Energized, cheered-up, grateful for the time they spend with you? Bottom-line: Do they feel inspired. No force, no cheaper, faster, better manufacturer or company can compete with a leader who can inspire his/her team under any conditions, threats, foes, or situations. The power to inspire= the power to strike down the tidal-force of copy-catism. Inspiration is the ultimate brand and as rare as the rarest diamond.
4. Strategy: Do you drive your choices in business strategically? Do you map your business out? Goal post, do you put yourself in another man’s shoes and try to bring enough good to the table that conventional deals, contracts, and ways of doing things-which led to this recession-which led to this recession-can be undone through force of out-of-the-box ‘win-win’ strategic planning?
5. Excellent Design: And here is the shield and sword of a companies’ ability to go to war with mass-volume-hydra headed, far flung purveyors of rapidlly produced product: Exquisite design. Do you have on your team or in your universe players able to up-brand and extend the life cycle of your companies’ products with innovative, trans formative designs-over and over again?
6. CONNECTIVITY: Can you bring people together when you have very few resources and execute the goal? No man is an island-none of us are perfect. CONNECTIVITY is not “making connections”-that was pre-recession babble- CONNECTIVITY is the combination of 1-3 above: Personality, ideas, and emotions. CONNECTIVITY IS YOUR (AND YOUR COMPANIES’) WARRIOR-It can’t be beat. And maybe only one in 100,000 people have the power of CONNECTIVITY. Seek them out-and stay stuck to them like epoxy.

we’ve test driven the e-road here are the results: downtown los angeles’ transport solution-zero emission, sustainable transport: driving the future now

it's about time

Down Town Los Angeles Business Blog has test driven the  e-road and here’s the bottom-line: fast, fun, and effective.

A phenomenal solution to downtown los angeles commuter congestion and best of all, eco-freindly-zero carbon emissions.

We applaud Logan Guzman, and the distributors of this new, vital, integral mode of transport: the e-road, a major step in the right direction.

full disclosure: members of the Downtown Los Angeles Business Blog are partners in the South Park Development Group and Forbes Legacy Ventures LLC, and are in the process of developing a business relationship with E-Road, for which we are thrilled.

a game changing c.f.o-the importance of having a great mentor in your organization

c.f.o as game-changer

as c.e.o i deliberate, i engage in strategic thinking, and I develop the best strategy that should be implemented on behalf of my team, my clients, my family, and my community. most often, strategically, we are right on the money, backed by powerful tactical flanking executed by the team.

 i don’t always know how to handle everyone-i don’t always get interpersonal relationships right: i am burdened by the entirety of the enterprise-which is no excuse-i refuse excuses from others and will not accept one from myself.

but, i can become so engaged in the day’s affairs and so wrapped up in my own ego, that i can’t see the forest from the trees-and the trees are my team. trees need water and the chance to grow.

i became insensibly unable to deal with a member of the team because i could not, through my limited prism of life and business experience comprehend the true nature of that person’s character or abilities-and i gave up. my c.f.o did not. she saw what i did not: a biz developer, a hustler, a beehive worker-a passionate, unique individual whose life experiences, bound together into a quilt of embedded memory make her a valuable player to my clients, my team, and to me.

 my c.f.0, eve, worked with her and what i can see-early days-is an early spring of personal growth and business mojo. always listen in business, always look for the tipping point, which is to be found at the edges, not at the centre, at those moments when you should listen, and are not. effective=active=acting intelligently. that’s what i am beginning to see  in this person that the c.f .o is mentoring, and i am proud and grateful.

we may have a business development powerhouse on our hands in this young acolyte.

beyond commoditization of customers: from customers to members, from members to members of your tribe.

green-organic boot-strap v.c funding in south park l.a: hope RIZE

Friday, May 15, 2009

 

the hopeRIZE fund:finding and boot strap funding GREEN-ORGANIC entreprenenuers

today, brett and I will be filing the securities and exchange paperwork for the hopeRIZE fund: moving toward solution-first round financing for young, dynamic, highly innovative future GREEN ORGANIC entrepreneurs: core component attribute: the startup(s) must be HQ downtown southpark l.a. within the four block LUNA-EVO-EVO SOUTH-FLOWER STREE LOFT schema.

we look forward to working with South Park stake holders to advance this goal.

-martin cavanaugh porter III and brett h tomich.

questions? you can email: info@southparkbusinessincubator.biz 

50-for-500 club

we cannot remain locked in a disparate darkness of financial road blocks to innovation. 

the best time to innovate, invest, and grow is through a recession by supporting groundbreaking start up-entrepreneurs who often lack the ‘get in the door’ credentials to accelerate their product to market and reach the payback period to investors. 

the los angeles business war room round table must assist start-ups and on-going businesses receive a degree of credit from suppliers, obtain second rounds of financing, and have access to state-of-the art technology to leverage their innovation and bring their product or service to market. 

let us look at the present value, beta, efficiency frontier modelling through the lens: degree to which we can support an innovator succeed.

credit scores: one part of a whole- many individuals credit scores have taken a hit these last years and/or young men and women don’t have enough credit history to have an adequate score.

Let us move beyond the obvious in our collective thinking “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Einstein.

 lets also talk about: innovation scores (can product or service be brought to market or improved and be re-branded in short order with a reasonable expectation of success) and credibility scores (what is the individual’s relationship with his freinds and family like-this is a prime new way of balancing a potentially low credit score). full due-diligence adding criteria that allows for a more balanced view of the potential investment. 

 

brett and I propose the  50 for 500 club to begin to provide direct, technical,branding, ongoing strategic advice and limited financial ‘boot strap’ assistance to one potential innovative, entrepreneurial  graduate from the USC Marshall School of Business through the South Park Business Incubator (a private business incubator, a business  unit of the South Park Development Group). much more to come about the 50 for 500 club in the days ahead.

 south park biz incubator (also called la biz incubator) would provide legal, technical, office, branding and marketing assistance (unlimited email marketing campaign blasts, free, best of breed website-on line ecommerce presence, viral-SEO marketing, business planning, and assistance in 2nd and third round financing) for the life of the start-up company, taking a 10% interest.

members of the 50 for 500 club in return for each member putting up a $500.00 stake in the venture, collectively own 10% interest.

it’s a new model: double down on the angel  investor model and drive innovation and the hopes of start-up businessmen and women.

the 50 for 500 club will be on the agenda  at the first war room round table.

questions? ideas? email: btomich@southparkbusinessincubator.biz or mcporter@southparkbusinessincubator.biz

entreprenuer magazine blog posting on forbes legacy ventures llc-l.a biz incubator inc

flvllc.com

entrepreneur magazine’s blog has said of forbes legacy ventures llc’s model is that it is a hybrid v.c, branding, ecommerce organization both % -equity based and or fee based that is the first organization that seems to be flexible enough to provide concrete, universal solutions to small-medium businesses. they have integrated business consulting with v.c allowing small business access to technologically complex solutions and focused growth strategies at a very reasonable rate….”

forbes legacy ventures llc is so pleased to announce that they are being closely watched by business week , whole foods blog, and the real estate industry report: they are humbled-they feel it is thier duty to  live up to the accolades…..forbes legacy ventures llc- the south park development group-l.a biz incubator will endeavor every day, in every way to provide maximum value to its clients

e-raod cycle, update 2

E-ROAD Update 2

the forbes legacy ventures team will be test driving the E-Road this sunday at, 2pm.

almost zero carbon emissions

seems perfect for downtown….we will keep you posted…

korean airlines: downtown’s biggest booster-exemplifies korean business practice: the mentality of a warrior

Korean Air

Korean airlines: a developer? yup. the only player spending a billion plus to build downtown los angeles’ newest, biggest, tallest, most state of the art skyscraper.

go figure: investing through the recession.

a better farmer’s market for downtown los angeles update 2(first posted in southparkla.com)

happily, a key and important stake-holder in our south park community has conditionally embraced the idea of a weekly farmer’s market for the community.

further, he has brought to the table some very forward-thinking, well thought out ideas, reorienting our own conceptions-essentially, significantly improving on them.

based on our chat, (this gentleman was very patient with us and gave wide berth to the overly energized c.e.o), we will continue to move forward with our plans to develop a weekly, organic, widely-ranged farmers market.

the stake-holder opened up for us the extent of the potential market-from FIDM north, to the California Hospital Med Center to the south, LA Live (Ritz-Marriott) to the west, and a vitalized, vibrant ‘edgy’ mix of lofts to the east.

the community thanks him-I certainly do.

we will keep you posted on this potential game changer: more community activity, more connectivity: bringing ‘neighborhood’ to steel towers and lifting quality of life.