From Inc Magazine’s Blogger Logic:

What’s an idea really worth?
Musician, programmer, and blogger Derek Sivers (sivers.org) writes… .

“It’s so funny when I hear people being so protective of ideas. (People who want me to sign an NDA to tell me the simplest idea.)… The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000. That’s why I don’t want to hear people’s ideas. I’m not interested until I see their execution.”

A few weeks ago, I posted my long-delayed thoughts about The 100 Best Business Books of All Time by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten. In the weeks since, I’ve had the opportunity to exchange a few emails with Todd and asked him about writing the book and what he gleaned from the process. What follows is a slightly edited version of our discussion:

Me: Thanks again for your willingness to talk/write a little more about your book. I’ve been following your projects (More Space, The 100 Best, CEO-READ blog, Fixed to Flexible) for something like seven years now, but for those who don’t know, what’s your story? And what’s the story behind The 100 Best?

Todd: What’s my story? I grew up in a small town in southeastern Wisconsin and went to Michigan Tech to get mechanical engineering degree. I was fortunate to get a job with General Electric, where I spent the next six years learning most of what I know about business. I joined my father in 2001 working in his small sheet metal fabrication business. I learned even more about small business.  I picked up an MBA from Marquette University along the way.

In 2004, I started working for the business book retailer 800-CEO-READ. I spent six years working there and had an awesome time. What I spent most of my time doing was pushing out the message “We are the experts in business books.” The 800-CEO-READ Book Awards, stewardship of ChangeThis, and the creation of InBubbleWrap all were in support of that mission.

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time was the best example of putting our stake in the ground and saying we know a lot of about business books. The book itself was something I tried to convince Jack, my co-author, of from almost the moment I got there. “We sell books, which means we know people who buy them. Should we write one?” It took 18 months to get the concept right and our publisher Portfolio was really helpful in that regard.  We signed a deal in April 2007, delivered the manuscript April 2008, and the book came out in February 2009. The book has done great. We are on our 6th printing and it has been translated into nine languages.

Me: Congratulations on the book’s success. What did you learn from the process of writing the book? What did you learn that was completely unexpected, if anything?

Todd: Things I learned writing The 100 Best:

1. You need to be able to tell someone else about your book in three sentences or less, about 50 words. There were all of these crazy complicated ideas for the book originally. We couldn’t get an agent interested.  We went directly to a publisher and they said the same thing: “Why don’t you just do The 100 Best Business Books of All Time?” I said it had been done before. They said everything has been done before and the people who do it right, own it.  They get to own the category. That was enough for me, except that the book had to be more than a list.

2. Great books also have nuance. Great books are easy to tell someone else about, but you remember them for how they capture you. Often, it is the style.  Sometimes, it is hearing a company story for the first time.

In the case of The 100 Best, we went way beyond the initial list.  There is almost 300 additional books that we recommend beyond The 100 Best. We tracked down the cover art and pulled a quote from every book.  There are 20 or sidebars with recommendations on case studies, children’s books, and fiction in a business setting.

3. Writing is a practiced, team sport. Great writing doesn’t happen without revisions or an editor. I don’t know anyone who just creates perfect prose. Listen to anything any writer has every said about writing and they will tell you that you write and rewrite and rewrite again.  And it could be that I am still a cub in this world of writing, but it is essential to have some one else working with me. I write better just knowing they are there.

The unexpected was that I would have never guessed I was a writer. I chose the college I attended based on the least number of english classes I needed to take. That is something I have worn as a strange badge of honor for years. The 100 Best had a profound impact on how view what I need to do with the rest of my life and it is impossible to accomplish that (‘that’ being connecting business ideas in new ways) without being a writer.

Me: I am curious if there are any books that have come out since The 100 Best that you would add to the list today? Which would be out?

Todd: It’s only been a year since The 100 Best came out, so I think it would be premature for me to start replacing titles on the list. I did like Tribes by Seth Godin and 800-CEO-READ named it Business Book of the Year in 2008, but we generally only let each author get one slot (Drucker and Charan were the exceptions).

The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

Getting Things Done by David Allen

The Four Conversations by Jeffery Ford and Laurie Ford

Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Financial Intelligence by Berman and Knight

Want to know more about Todd? Check these links:

ToddSattersten.com
Todd’s Twitter Stream
Download Fixed to Flexible, here.

People have been writing about the greatness of Apple’s advertising since about 1984. These days Apple does a brilliant job of speaking to its customers in a unique and consistent voice—no matter what the product (and the voice differs depending on the product and audience). The iTunes/iPod campaign features people dancing with their iPods and reckless abandon. The “I’m a Mac” campaign is both fun and funny, pointing why Macs are better than PCs.

But the big winner for effectiveness in advertising is the iPhone campaign. Here’s why:

1. Beautiful product shots. The only thing you see in this campaign is a hand, or hands, holding a iPhone. That’s it. Of course, the iPhone is used to conjure up maps, photos, games, music and anything else the narrator talks about. But what we see is a well-designed iPhone on a plain white background.

2. Product demonstrations. Notice the ads don’t ever say, “Buy an iPhone” or “The iPhone will make your life better.” There are no promises. Just a simple, compelling demonstration designed to make the viewer think, “Wow, if it’s that simple to do all those things, maybe I should get one.” By changing up the demonstration in each ad (but not the product shots), you quickly see how versatile the iPhone is. Interestingly, the iPhone doesn’t do a whole lot of things you couldn’t do before, it just does them more easily from the palm of your hand.

3. Story. Give yourself a gold star if you saw this one coming. Every 30 second ad is a short story. Whether it’s the story of the person who found and adopted a dog, or the story of the backpacker who went to Spain, or the story of the guy who missed the train. And the hero of every story is the phone. It helps find missing reports, and book hotels, and post photos online, and makes the airport check-in process easy. Each story is nothing less than a testimonial about how the phone has improved someone’s life. The viewer is left to assume the phone can make their life better too.

This is a campaign that could run for a very long time. As long as there are useful aps to demo and human interest stories to build the demos around, there will be content for more iPhone ads.

You can watch all the stories in this campaign, here.

In a post from last year, Derek Sivers writes about a talk he attended in which Kurt Vonnegut explained why stories appeal to people. Check it out here. Vonnegut drew up a few common story arcs like this one, for Cinderella:

Note the dramatic ups and downs. This is what makes a story interesting. The twists and turns pull at our emotions and make us pay attention. Then Vonnegut sketched out the story arc of our lives:

And so it goes. Most people’s lives are pretty boring. We do the same stuff day in and day out. Normal things like answering emails, grocery shopping, and picking up the kids from soccer. Very few of us outsmart our wicked step sisters and dance with the prince at the ball. That’s partly why stories are so gripping.

That’s also why people are drawn to brands with great stories (or brands that tell great stories). Very few of us see ourselves as creative. But if I buy an iPhone (or even better, an iPad), I can borrow Apple’s story for my own use. Now my story is more creative and hip, because I have an iPad.

If I drive a Mini Cooper, I borrow Mini’s story and I perceive that my life is more fun, because now I don’t just drive, I “motor.” Even a brand of peanut butter can signal that one mom is “choosier,” and therefore more caring, than another.

Consumers use brand stories to say something about their own stories. Often to improve them.

Is your brand story good enough to inspire people to add it to their own?

UPDATE (4/29/10): I stumbled across another version of Kurt Vonnegut’s speech on story arcs, this one is written by Vonnegut himself. Just as interesting as Sivers’ take, though a little different. Check it out here.

This is pretty cool: Google has introduced a new tool (or is it a toy?) called Search Stories. It takes your search requests (or someone else’s) and turns them into stories using search results, google maps, Street View, books, images, and more—complete with music and video. What sounds little lame at first (who wants to watch other people’s Google searches?) is actually quite compelling. Most importantly Search Stories is a very good way for Google to show the benefits of their search engine using an individual’s own experience—tying in stories to add meaning.

Check it out here. (Parisian Love is a pretty good place to start).

Try it to make your own Search Story.

Via AdFreak which put together their own Tiger Woods Search Story.

When I write about brand stories, there are really two kinds of narratives to think about: the macro and the  micro. When a brand is really doing well, the narratives mirror each other and work to spread your story in both mass marketing and from consumer to consumer.

Macro Narratives—The Big Picture

Macro-narratives are the brand stories told in Annual Reports and shareholder meetings. These stories make up the majority of marketing messages on television and are reflected in product characteristics like packaging and price. When a brand team meets to talk about the messages they want to focus on and communicate to customers, they are talking about macro-narratives. These stories originate and are controlled by the brand team.

Micro Narratives—Where the Action Is

Micro-narratives are considerably different. Unlike the messages consumers see in television commercials, these stories reflect user experiences. Where macro-narratives are designed to appeal to large groups of customers (mass advertising), micro-narratives are personal. They come from one-on-one interactions with employees or from actual experience using a product.

Other than to make sure that the brand experience is in harmony with the brand promise made by the macro-narrative, a brand manager can’t do very much to control these personal experiences. These are the brand stories you find on facebook, twitter, and in person-to-person conversations. Today, social media has made micro-narratives far more easy to spread.

Putting the Two Together

When the Macro-narrative is reflected by the Micro-narratives shared by customers, brands tend to grow. Consumers expect and reward this kind of integrity. But when they conflict, consumers easily see the hypocrisy and abandon the brand.

Example: When your community bank advertises that they understand it’s their customers that keep them in business, they are telling a powerful macro-narrative—especially when compared to the competition which feels faceless and corporate. But when the customer’s actual experience isn’t a caring bank, but rather a corporation that charges exorbitant fees and makes it all but impossible to reach a human being, the narrative loses its power.

For a good brand story to work as well as it can, both narratives need to support each other.

Finding a brand voice is hard. Really hard.

But there are brands that do it well (at least for awhile). Apple. Mini Cooper. The Economist. Every time you see a marketing effort for one of these brands, it’s as if it were created by the same person that did the last one. Different execution, same voice.

How do they do it where others fail?

Finding the right brand voice requires two things. First you have to know exactly who your consumer is. If your target market is “everyone” you will never have a brand voice that stands out. You’ll sound just like everyone else targeting everyone. Second, you need an almost fascist dedication to consistency over time. It also helps to work with a good writer.

One brand that did it exceptionally well from 1997 until 2005 was Miller High Life. In a category of cheap jokes masquerading as ads, it is clear that the MHL brand team understood exactly who they were talking to—men. Real men. Not college boys who greet each other by saying, “Wazzup,” a dozen times. Men who could appreciate skills like backing up a boat trailer.

Men who weren’t worried about their diets.

Men who don’t cheat.

Real men.

A terrific example of a brand voice (not just Doug Jeffer’s voice overs, but also the writing, the photography, the subject matter) used consistently over eight years to reinforce a strong brand story.

This post doesn’t have much to do with marketing or stories, it’s just something I’ve been thinking about for the past couple of days…

I have been reading Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin, in which he is very critical of the failure of our education system to teach creativity. He argues that we churn out legions of “factory workers” who appear happy with meaningless jobs in exchange for the security of a paycheck. We are taught to follow directions, color within the lines, and never question authority. And we learn those lessons very well. (The way Seth describes it is far more nuanced.)

At the same time, I have been reflecting on my own experience with business school, and wondering how it could have been better. Don’t get me wrong—I had an amazing experience and learned many things I would not have learned otherwise. I don’t regret my decision to pursue my MBA at all. But I essentially got the same education as the other 62 people in the program with me. I have to wonder: is there a better way? Should I have learned something different from the others?

I’m certainly not the first person to ask these questions. Josh Kaufman began exploring the idea of a personal MBA about five years ago. He put together a very good reading list from which any motivated student can learn almost everything a traditional MBA student learns in the course of study—probably more. There’s a lot to like about Kaufman’s idea. A student can tailor an experience around his own needs and weaknesses—all for a few hundred dollars and an Amazon account.

But the lack of interaction with other students and professors is a huge drawback. In my own experience, discussions with my fellow students, including a PhD. of Genetics, the freelance technical director of a bay area opera, the safety director at Rio Tinto, and an operations VP at Kimberly Clark, taught me far more than the books or case studies alone.

But as good as it is, the classroom experience itself, isn’t very real-world. Discussing the people management policies at Southwest Airlines is far different than managing the people. Making decisions in a marketing simulation isn’t at all like the real-world process of product development and marketing products to real consumers. So I have to think there is a better way to teach these skills.

I’d love to see my business school offer a new degree, a master’s of business creation (MBC) or master’s of business innovation (MBI). Students would be formed into small groups of three or four. Tuition would become seed capital and professors would act as paid advisors to help students brainstorm ideas, then launch a business or not-for-profit enterprise.

This would require a lot of people to step out of their comfort zones. Written tests would be pretty meaningless—instead students would be graded on successfully applying concepts to real world situations. The accounting final might be the actual tax documents for the business. Professors wouldn’t be able to show up and present the same lecture they’ve given for the past eight years. In fact, they wouldn’t know what they should teach until they arrived at the group’s daily meeting. One week, students might need accounting help. The next week, help with negotiations or ethics. The next week, advice on marketing, or design, or statistics. The professors basically become a board of directors for the students to rely on.

The university could introduce business students to professors and students from other disciplines (say medicine, engineering, or chemistry) who are working on new technologies with market potential in order to start their businesses. A portion of the profits from the successful start-ups could help reduce the overall cost of the student’s education—or they could be fed back into other meaningful programs at the school.

There may still be a place for textbooks and semi-regular lectures. But they would be taking place against a background of experience where the theories can be tried and tested.

Graduates from this program might not be a good fit for GE, IBM, or Pfizer. But I’m guessing more of them would come away from their educational experience as artists and entrepreneurs, rather than the drones Seth Godin describes. Something to think about anyway…

Related Thoughts:

• Others have thought out this idea too, probably better than I: here and here.

• There appear to be several business programs in Europe that are very similar to the one described above. It may be time to import some of these ideas to our U.S. schools. Examples here, here, and here.

• I posted a link to this talk by Sir Ken Robinson about how schools kill creativity at the old blog. It’s been around for awhile and linked to quite a bit, but if you haven’t seen it before, it’s well worth the 20 minutes it takes to watch: