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Summertime Reds

by Jan Flesher on August 18, 2011

Summertime reds are the opposite of summertime blues. I have connected, and reconnected, with some great firms in the past 6 weeks. And I am truly enjoying the puzzles that come from working with different firms and their idiosyncrasies.

It’s curious to me that many marketing seminars, presentations, etc. purport explicit ways of “how to do” blank. Often I witness firms attempting to implement these “how to’s” without adjusting them to their culture, usiness or marketing strategies.

One-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter solutions are painful and costly to businesses that invest in the myth that is spun around such solutions. It’s a cautionary tale I tell all my clients. You wouldn’t buy the latest, coolest running shoes that don’t really fit all that well and then just suffer through your morning run? So why would you buy into a solution that isn’t customizable or flexible enough to fit your firm?

Theoretical solutions are where we all start, but when it comes down to practicality of implementation and nailing down precisely how it’ll help the firm, the abyss looms large. It’s exciting to help clients bypass the abyss and witness them turning their summertime blues into reds!

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Back In The Saddle Again

June 1, 2011

Ok, so taking a month off didn’t really work out. It was a good thought, but when you are trying to restart your consulting practice, time off isn’t really possible. As you may have noticed, jflesher.com is up and running. It’s still a work in progress though it has the basic info to understand that [...]

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Charging the Stupidity Tax – Joshua Gans – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review

January 11, 2011

If you have a smartphone and have traveled internationally, you are likely aware of the charges you might pay for data roaming. And if you didn’t know about them before your trip, you certainly became aware of them the first time you traveled. For normal use, those charges can amount to an extra $1,000 to [...]

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Grabbing a Piece of History

October 10, 2010

It has been a whirlwind over the past few weeks in Seattle’s efforts to get its waterfront redesign jump started. The project is big, complex and still missing one key piece – the tunnel design team. Those teams have to submit their proposals by the end of October. Once the tunnel design team is selected, [...]

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Seattle DJC Newspaper – Architecture & Engineering – James Corner team to lead waterfront design

September 21, 2010

James Corner team to lead waterfront design By JOURNAL STAFF The city of Seattle today picked James Corner Field Operations as lead designer for the central waterfront project. The firm was the project lead for High Line, an urban park set on top of an old elevated railroad structure in New York City. More on [...]

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Reinvention

September 10, 2010

As you probably know by now, I am a big fan of HBR. This month’s issue has a great article on Kaiser Permanente’s Innovation Consultancy. If you want to look up the article, it is, “Kaiser Permanente’s Innovation on the Front Lines,” by Lew McCreary, but you need a subscription to read the entire thing. [...]

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Budget Cuts Intensify Identity Crisis at Washington’s Flagship Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education

September 1, 2010

Photo composite by Stephen Brashear for The Chronicle Clouds gather over the flagship campus of the U. of Washington. The campus, administrators say, is expected to be both “racehorse and workhorse” for the state. The state lacks the depth of public-university systems in some other states. As a result, the university preserves 4,000 freshman spots [...]

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A Move Update

September 1, 2010

It has been nearly two weeks since I transitioned to the other side of the office. I love it! I have accomplished more with fewer interruptions. Guess being off the proverbial beaten path is paying off…for now. I know this is a cautionary glee because if I become too hidden, that wellspring of information I [...]

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Max Headroom, My 80′s Icon

August 23, 2010

This column is hysterical. Ok, so maybe not just the column but the discussion that takes place due to the column. Scott Brown wrote an article for Wired Magazine entitled, “Scott Brown on How Max Headroom Predicted the Demise of TV Journalism”  (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/07/pl_brown_tvjournalism/). I love Max Headroom. The social commentary on the media as the [...]

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Rough Start

August 17, 2010

It’s moving day and here’s how it’s going: 1) Dropped my wife at work this morning and a seagull covered, yes covered my windshield with pooh. 2) I found out that at my last oil change (4 days ago), the folks didn’t refill the windshield wiper fluid. It only got more ridiculous as I am [...]

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