by Mark O'Brien | Jan 15, 2015
When my younger son, Quinn, played basketball at Salve Regina University, I noticed something: When things went badly during a game, the coach would call a time-out and summon the team to the sideline. As the players assembled, he’d pull an index card out of the...
by Mark O'Brien | Jan 14, 2015
Though I manage brands for a living, I’m not objective enough to position and manage my own brand. I’m too close to it. Every brand owner has the same myopic inability. But many of them resist objectivity. And when presented with the new, the push is on to...
by Mark O'Brien | Jan 13, 2015
Good news, kids: We’re no longer complex creatures. We’re neither cryptic nor complicated. Anfractuous behavioral lines are now — if not perfectly straight — at least malleable. Outcomes are predictable. That’s right. We have experience maps. An...
by Mark O'Brien | Jan 12, 2015
Companies complain about the effect of ad-blocking on their revenue streams. They have a point … to a point. Blocking ads does break the traditional covenant in which users gain access to content in exchange for exposure to advertising. But the complainants...
by Mark O'Brien | Jan 9, 2015
If you do a Google search for dreaded words in business, you’ll get millions of hits. That’s a lot of dread. And it’s a reminder that dread is contextual. Edward G. Brown thinks the most dreaded words in business are Got a minute? Shell Haffner...
by Mark O'Brien | Jan 8, 2015
For those of us who care about such things, it’s fascinating to note that keyboard design and composition have remained largely unchanged since Enrico Royal brought the first typewriter to the United States aboard Christopher Columbus’ flagship, Santa...
