Without doubt, less is more in so many aspects of our lives. Less food can actually improve your energy levels, less meetings can be more productive and the iPad has less buttons and more useability.
We know that Apple under Steve Jobs went for simplicity in design that put it well above the rest and resulted in others playing catch-up ever since.
I came across this site that really shows how Marketing is changing and makes this point very well. Take a look at the photos below and be honest, which do you prefer?
I am willing to bet that most people preferred the third of fourth. Maybe the baby-boomers liked the second!!! The fact is, simplicity and minimization is the trend. Too many websites, brochures, display stands, adverts, covers, packaging and workbooks are too ‘busy’. They don’t appeal and draw the customer in.
Thanks to A2591 Blog for some great work on this. Outstanding and well done
Written by Paul Bridle
Information Contextualizer - collecting relevant information for clients and delivering it in a way people can use in their business and personal life. I am an Information Contextualizer which means I contextualize information in a way that people can use for their business. I get invited to speak at conferences, write articles for magazines all over the world, and I write books and do some Advisory work for companies. I study effective organizations and the people that lead them. I spend at least 20% of my year doing research. I was voted 12th in The Top Most Influential Leadership Guru's in the World for three consecutive years. I love my life and there is nothing I enjoy more than doing my work. I have a wonderful wife, a brilliant son who I have the pleasure to work with, and some of the best friends possible.
skype. | website. http://www.paulbridle.com | email. paul@paulbridle.com
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One thing that nobody can deny is that President Obama can make a great speech. His timing and clarity is stunning. He certainly crafted a great speech starting with the Armed Forces and ending with the success of the Armed Forces in getting Bin Laden. The truth is…on foreign policy Obama is the best Republican President the Republic Party never had!
One has to respect how well he defined the ground that the coming election will be fought on, and where he stands compared to where the Republican nominees stand. At least it looks like there will be a distinct difference in approach for the public to be able to make a choice from.
His plea for bi-partisan approach was a scream into the darkness. Washington is not feeling enough pain yet to be prepared to make that change. The people will need to rise up in a US Spring before there is any hope of that happening despite Gabby Gifford.
At least the election is starting to look like it might be interesting….except for all those hardliners on both sides that can’t make a decision because they have already made their minds up!
Written by Paul Bridle
Information Contextualizer - collecting relevant information for clients and delivering it in a way people can use in their business and personal life. I am an Information Contextualizer which means I contextualize information in a way that people can use for their business. I get invited to speak at conferences, write articles for magazines all over the world, and I write books and do some Advisory work for companies. I study effective organizations and the people that lead them. I spend at least 20% of my year doing research. I was voted 12th in The Top Most Influential Leadership Guru's in the World for three consecutive years. I love my life and there is nothing I enjoy more than doing my work. I have a wonderful wife, a brilliant son who I have the pleasure to work with, and some of the best friends possible.
skype. | website. http://www.paulbridle.com | email. paul@paulbridle.com
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Today I mixed my own drink in a vending machine. A simple drink like Coke I would mix with Lime, Lemon, Blackcurrent, etc. The same with Fanta and other brands….in fact over 100 different drinks that I could dispense from the same machine.
The gentleman from Coke explained that they can add new brand mixes by a simple software update and the ingredients adding to the machine. How far can customization go? It seems that it can go as far as technology and our minds can imagine it!
Written by Paul Bridle
Information Contextualizer - collecting relevant information for clients and delivering it in a way people can use in their business and personal life. I am an Information Contextualizer which means I contextualize information in a way that people can use for their business. I get invited to speak at conferences, write articles for magazines all over the world, and I write books and do some Advisory work for companies. I study effective organizations and the people that lead them. I spend at least 20% of my year doing research. I was voted 12th in The Top Most Influential Leadership Guru's in the World for three consecutive years. I love my life and there is nothing I enjoy more than doing my work. I have a wonderful wife, a brilliant son who I have the pleasure to work with, and some of the best friends possible.
skype. | website. http://www.paulbridle.com | email. paul@paulbridle.com
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I understand that my previous blog about Adria Airways was on the front page of the newspapers and has been doing the rounds in the country. I have received a range of comments….some attacking me for speaking about this and others sympathizing with me.
I want to thank all the people that commented on my blog about Adria Airlines, whatever you comment was. Please let me be very clear……
Adria Airways DID NOT let ME down. They let the people of Slovenia down in the way they treat passengers whether the passengers are foreigners or Slovenians. Nobody can blame the staff of the airline if they are not getting the training and if the staff are not developed to understand the importance of their role in creating the right image for their country.
Slovenia is a wonderful Central European country with a rich culture, fascinating history and the people I met were wonderful and genuine people. I wrote on my Facebook and Twitter BEFORE I wrote the blog, that everyone should visit Slovenia once in their life because I was so impressed with the country.
I had a great time while I was in Ljabljana, met some wonderful people and had a fantastic tour of the city center with an amazing guide.
The people that run the airline need to understand that there role is more than just flying planes in and out of the country. They are part of an industry that is one of the biggest in the world….the tourism/conference and meetings and destination industry. This industry brings revenue to the country and what they do can affect not only their own revenue, but the revenue of the industry.
I loved my experience while I was on the ground in Slovenia and enjoyed staying at the wonderful Hotel Slon.
PLEASE Adria Airways, become an airline that the people of Slovenia can be proud of.
Written by Paul Bridle
Information Contextualizer - collecting relevant information for clients and delivering it in a way people can use in their business and personal life. I am an Information Contextualizer which means I contextualize information in a way that people can use for their business. I get invited to speak at conferences, write articles for magazines all over the world, and I write books and do some Advisory work for companies. I study effective organizations and the people that lead them. I spend at least 20% of my year doing research. I was voted 12th in The Top Most Influential Leadership Guru's in the World for three consecutive years. I love my life and there is nothing I enjoy more than doing my work. I have a wonderful wife, a brilliant son who I have the pleasure to work with, and some of the best friends possible.
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Gingrich was awful in Iowa as I said in a previous blog. He didn’t look the part, didn’t sound the part and when he hit back, he sounded like a bad tempered old man. Respect were respect is due, he certainly came over a lot better in the last week of South Carolina. He got his message clearer and looked presentable, he even managed to be forth-right without sounding miserable. I hope he sent John King a bouquet of flowers to thank him for that opening question in the debate that allowed him to start very strong and show righteous indignation. A superb response from Gingrich.
But one response doesn’t make a leader. Certainly Gingrich seems to have found his level/tone/stride and used it well. At the same time Mitt Romney didn’t do himself any favors in the way he handed the Tax returns issue. It was partly Gingrich gaining ground and Romney giving away ground.
In terms of leadership ability for the top job, ( I still say none of them) based on the four candidates, Romney still has the edge.
Written by Paul Bridle
Information Contextualizer - collecting relevant information for clients and delivering it in a way people can use in their business and personal life. I am an Information Contextualizer which means I contextualize information in a way that people can use for their business. I get invited to speak at conferences, write articles for magazines all over the world, and I write books and do some Advisory work for companies. I study effective organizations and the people that lead them. I spend at least 20% of my year doing research. I was voted 12th in The Top Most Influential Leadership Guru's in the World for three consecutive years. I love my life and there is nothing I enjoy more than doing my work. I have a wonderful wife, a brilliant son who I have the pleasure to work with, and some of the best friends possible.
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It is really a waste and tragic loss of an extremely talented woman who died after a fall on January 10 in the superpipe at the Park City Mountain Resort in the United States. She tore a vertebral artery that supplies blood to the brain and had surgery to repair the torn artery and had been in a medically induced coma until she died in a Salt Lake City hospital.
At the time of the fall she was in Park City training for a superpipe event hosted by Monster Energy who was one of her sponsors.
She was a multiple gold medal winner in the Winter X Games and won the 2005 world championships and was the first woman to do a 1080-degree spin in a competition. Sarah won the 2007 ESPY award as Best Female Action Sports Athlete.
The girl born in Barrie Ontario Canada, played a leading role in getting this extreme sport being added to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Socchi, where she was favoured to win gold.
“She was just someone so larger than life. It’s very hard to imagine she’s not with us anymore,” said Peter Judge, CEO of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association.
Her family are left with a medical bill for the week in hospital of US$550,000. What medical services could possibly cost that much? This is an example of the worst of the US medical system.
Written by Paul Bridle
Information Contextualizer - collecting relevant information for clients and delivering it in a way people can use in their business and personal life. I am an Information Contextualizer which means I contextualize information in a way that people can use for their business. I get invited to speak at conferences, write articles for magazines all over the world, and I write books and do some Advisory work for companies. I study effective organizations and the people that lead them. I spend at least 20% of my year doing research. I was voted 12th in The Top Most Influential Leadership Guru's in the World for three consecutive years. I love my life and there is nothing I enjoy more than doing my work. I have a wonderful wife, a brilliant son who I have the pleasure to work with, and some of the best friends possible.
skype. | website. http://www.paulbridle.com | email. paul@paulbridle.com
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As is often the case with the smaller national airlines, the staff are disaffected and do their job according to the rules and take great pleasure in being able to use the rules to show they have power. Such has been my experience with Adria Airlines in eastern Europe.
On my first flight with them out of Munich, there had been a mix up with my seating. Although they had given me a boarding card with a seat number, when I boarded the aircraft the seating plan they had on board had me assigned to a different seat. The Stewardess took delight in telling me I had the wrong seat and when I produced my boarding card marched off annoyed, only to return moments later to show me her manifesto and insist I move. Of course I did without issue.
On the flight I went to the toilet and spoke to her. It was obvious by her reply that she saw her job to conform to the airlines rules. It was certainly not her job to make my flight a positive experience and the thought that she represents her country to me, was beyond her thinking.
Today I have to once again to fly Adria to Frankfurt. I arrive at check-in and explain that I am trying to catch the earlier flight out of Frankfurt and so would like to sit as near to the front as I can and can my two small bags be hand luggage so that I can make the flight. What happened next was something out of the Soviet Union in the 1960’s. As first the check in lady and then another man at another desk did everything they could to be difficult with me. I got quoted the rules and told that I am asking them to break airline rules…..and so it went on.
Keeping calm I explained I didn’t want to break any rules, I wanted his help to find a way of getting me and my luggage to Frankfurt in a manner that enabled me a chance of connecting my earlier flight. Both in physical appearance and his manner, I felt I was dealing with an Kremlin Guard who was determined to use his little bit of power without thought for my experience.
I find it outstanding that at a time when airlines are desperate for customers and countries are desperate for tourists and airlines and countries spend huge amounts of money on advertising and marketing, that they shoot themselves in the foot by their front line staff not having the necessary training to deliver a service that makes customers want to buy from them!
Unfortunately I will not fly Adria Airlines again, even though they are part of the Star Alliance Group which is my favoured group to fly with. The man behind the counter may have the power and hide behind rules (even though both him and I know he has the authority to make alternative arrangements) but I have the ultimate sanction because I can deprive his airline of my money in future….the same money that pays his wages.
I will say what I have said many times in the past:
The experience I have with your staff tells me what sort of leader you are. What experience am I having today?
Come on Adria, you are the first experience people will have of your country….and in many cases the last as well. Get your customer orientation right, you can’t get the best from your people if they see their job as enforcing rules and not understanding they are there to manage my perceptions of your airline and the country you represent in a safe and effective way.
Written by Paul Bridle
Information Contextualizer - collecting relevant information for clients and delivering it in a way people can use in their business and personal life. I am an Information Contextualizer which means I contextualize information in a way that people can use for their business. I get invited to speak at conferences, write articles for magazines all over the world, and I write books and do some Advisory work for companies. I study effective organizations and the people that lead them. I spend at least 20% of my year doing research. I was voted 12th in The Top Most Influential Leadership Guru's in the World for three consecutive years. I love my life and there is nothing I enjoy more than doing my work. I have a wonderful wife, a brilliant son who I have the pleasure to work with, and some of the best friends possible.
skype. | website. http://www.paulbridle.com | email. paul@paulbridle.com
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As Huntsman stands down, we see the character of the man coming to the fore. This was a sad but wise step Why? Because, those that are wanting the Republicans to win the next election know that they have to put the needs of the Party ahead of their personal wants. They see that the best thing for the Party is for there to be an early candidate so the focus is on fighting Obama.
Being a leader is about knowing how best to apply yourself and the best role you can play…..and not simply having the desire to lead. The best leaders have often been reluctant to be the leader and only done so when it is obvious that they are the right person. None of these candidates are coming over with anything other than a desperate desire to be the President. However, I said in a previous blog, Huntsman was the candidate most likely to have the leadership ability and in a perverse way he has proved it by knowing that it was better for him to stand aside and play a better role.
The trouble with the American people is, they are looking for an exceptional person to be President. Not everyone can be exceptional. If everyone could be exceptional, it wouldn’t be exceptional! So, get over it. Truth is, non of the Candidates are exceptional and so you work with what you got.
So, will reality dawn on the other candidates sooner or later that the best way they can serve their country or their Party, is to stand aside. We wait and see.
Written by Paul Bridle
Information Contextualizer - collecting relevant information for clients and delivering it in a way people can use in their business and personal life. I am an Information Contextualizer which means I contextualize information in a way that people can use for their business. I get invited to speak at conferences, write articles for magazines all over the world, and I write books and do some Advisory work for companies. I study effective organizations and the people that lead them. I spend at least 20% of my year doing research. I was voted 12th in The Top Most Influential Leadership Guru's in the World for three consecutive years. I love my life and there is nothing I enjoy more than doing my work. I have a wonderful wife, a brilliant son who I have the pleasure to work with, and some of the best friends possible.
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The results of the Primary Republican Party votes in New Hampshire last night showed a ranking of the candidates ability to lead.
Of the group, Romney performed the best and the way he handled the comment about “firing people” along with other attacks, was very good. He out shined his rivals easily.
Personally Santorum falling below 10% was very fair, although I would have ranked him lower than that. He did not come over as anything more than a fundamentalist who happened to be Christian.
Gingrich…..ahhhhh. Gingrich does not do attack very well, he comes over as an angry man, and that is not good for a leader. Deserved what he got despite who he is.
Paul came second and I would have probably switched the ranking between Paul and Huntsman. Huntsman is more of a leader than Paul and it is a big shame he may well fall out of the race. Paul is a leader but simply not got the image to carry it on his own.
Perry? Should have got out after Iowa. Big mistake to have carried on. Not a leader at this level and out of his league.
The best thing that the Republicans can do is make this short and pick a candidate. In that way the fight will between the Parties and come away from showing their divisions in-house. Sadly, they probably won’t do that and Obama will breathe a sigh of relief.
In truth, Romney is not a strong candidate and will not make a good leader of the country, but it is the best of the current running. Having said that, I believe that there is still a couple of surprises likely. Watch out for a left field entry in the Republican race in April that threatens to sweep the board.
Also, when the Republicans are finished choosing, watch out for a strong independent suddenly appearing to muddy the waters and make it interesting (well for the rest of the world that see this election as the best soap that is not on TV!)
Written by Paul Bridle
Information Contextualizer - collecting relevant information for clients and delivering it in a way people can use in their business and personal life. I am an Information Contextualizer which means I contextualize information in a way that people can use for their business. I get invited to speak at conferences, write articles for magazines all over the world, and I write books and do some Advisory work for companies. I study effective organizations and the people that lead them. I spend at least 20% of my year doing research. I was voted 12th in The Top Most Influential Leadership Guru's in the World for three consecutive years. I love my life and there is nothing I enjoy more than doing my work. I have a wonderful wife, a brilliant son who I have the pleasure to work with, and some of the best friends possible.
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Today Ed Miliband (Leader of the Labour Party in UK) tried hard to relaunch the Party without seeming like it was a relaunch, take the Party in a new direction, without appearing that he has got it wrong for the last nine months, and attempted to portray the man with the answers without explaining why he has not come up with them before!
In fairness, with rising concern in his Party about his ability to Lead, he has to do something but the trouble is he is not a Leader and has certainly not got street credibility. Labour made a big mistake loosing his brother, David Miliband, who would have at least been a credible leader of the opposition.
In a typical Ed Miliband presentation style, (A style that makes me feel that I am watching a kid answering back to the Head Master and trying hard to be grownup) he talked about a “changed” Labour Party that would make better choices on spending. Labour has changed so much recently that it is in danger of becoming a ‘master of change’…. which will end up with them creating change for changes sake. Ed didn’t like Tony Blair’s direction, not fully in agreement with Gordon Brown’s direction (but who did) and so set off in another direction that he now wants to change!?!?!
The only good thing about Ed Milband being leader of the Labour Party is that the Conservatives only have to worry about their Partners in the Coalition these days.
My thoughts on Ed Miliband are the same as I wrote when he became leader of his Party….wrong man and bad for Britain. Whoever is in power, a good opposition is important and there isn’t one. In fact, the Liberal Party, had they not been in a coalition, would have made a better opposition!
Where have all the leaders gone? Oh yes…..working on TV shows!
Written by Paul Bridle
Information Contextualizer - collecting relevant information for clients and delivering it in a way people can use in their business and personal life. I am an Information Contextualizer which means I contextualize information in a way that people can use for their business. I get invited to speak at conferences, write articles for magazines all over the world, and I write books and do some Advisory work for companies. I study effective organizations and the people that lead them. I spend at least 20% of my year doing research. I was voted 12th in The Top Most Influential Leadership Guru's in the World for three consecutive years. I love my life and there is nothing I enjoy more than doing my work. I have a wonderful wife, a brilliant son who I have the pleasure to work with, and some of the best friends possible.
skype. | website. http://www.paulbridle.com | email. paul@paulbridle.com
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