Tabloid Journalism works like Cocaine

Stephen Denning TED talk

End of Life (EOL)

My father lived to be 90.  In his last years, he realized he had Alzheimer’s and this  frustrated him, since his mind had always been sharp.     He became frail and would be admitted to the hospital, where he would improve and then be transferred to a rehab facility.  He would stay there for several months, and then recover enough to go home.   He was able to stay at home with the help of a caregiver, who came during the day.  After six months, he moved to an assisted living facility to be closer to family.   There again, he was admitted to the hospital, then transferred to rehab, and then back to assisted living.  After several cycles of this he became tired.   He wanted to be with his wife.  At that time we were unaware that we could request that he not be sent to the hospital.    By the last cycle it was clear he did not want to go to the hospital.   Hospice was arranged to take care of him.   Our experience was that the only way to die at home is through hospice. 

He did very little EOL planning.   People plan their vacations more than their EOL

Advanced Directives Rock

Katherine Foley, MD on EOL

Mary Catherine Bateson on EOL    (Margaret Mead's daughter)

This book illustrates how to develop a market.   Markets go through stages and each stage of the market requires a different selling strategy.  When the first small computers came out it was visionaries who bought them because their function was very limited.  I remember before Bill Gates created software they were a box with blinking lights.  The competition was the existing technology.  People don't need new device as they have been getting along without it. The first customers of a new technology are the few forward thinking people who can see the opportunity.  To sell to them you need "a closer". Closing is when the sale becomes a fact. Achieving this requires the customer to feel desire for the product or fear of loosing the product.  Closers excel at this, however they can be unethical as they are strictly motivated by the sale.  As the market grew, it expanded to include the progressive customer who saw the value but wanted to buy the whole solution and needed technical help.  At this point, "sales wizards" are vital to offer a solution. They hold the customers hand and make the technology work for the customer.  The military now practices "system buying".   A company at this point in the markets expansion needs to make a choice whether to become a technology company and advance the technology while keeping its sales staff of "closers" and "wizards" or whether to follow the market and sell a standardized product to knowledgeable users.   No company can be all things to all customers. He doesn't buy Tushman's "The Ambidextrous Organization".   A company must choose the customers for whom it can deliver the most value.   Advancing the technology can lead to companies that are very profitable but not huge.  Then, if a company goes after the market, it must choose weather to dominate a market niche or go after the mass market.  To sell to a growing market takes "relationship builders".  Think the old IBM.   Finally, To sell to  a global mature market one needs not great sales people but a great sales system managed by a "sales captain".   Sales will be by kids such as those in Best Buy or The Apple Store. In a mature market improvements will be evolutionary because standards need to be maintained. At this point a customers two main reason for not buying are price and hassle.  Therefore your strategy is to lower price and make things easier for the customer.   To manage staff the captain makes games and contests out of who does the best with the most challenging customers.  This may be the best marketing book you haven't read.

In summary  

Technology	birth	fast growth	incremental growth	maturity
Customers	gateswingers	progressive	relationship	the world
Sales people	closer	wizard	relationship builder	captain and crew
Strategy	build the dream	use knowledge to create custom solutions	be your customers strongest ally	make it easy to buy and price it low
Selling approach	high - energy evangelical enthusiasm	professional smooth	warm friendly long term relation	helpful courteous efficient
Service	refund if a problem	total support	advocate for your customer	consistent quality and low prices

 The Nine steps of selling 

Marketing

1 Marketing communications  - building an image to induce attention

2 Generating leads -  contacting people who might become customers

3 Qualifying Prospects  - finding people with the means to buy from you 

Sales 

4 Presentation  - the sales persons pitch

5 Resolving objections - remove the barriers to the sale

6 Closing the sale  - persuading customers to say yes

Service

7 Execution and Service  - managing to keep the customer satisfied now and later

8 Building relationships  - personal contacts that take place after the sale

9 Repeat business - the pot of gold

This book was an update of his book, "The Quadrant Solution".  Jeff Cox also co wrote "The Goal".  We went to a start-up conference two weeks ago and the lawyer said the biggest legal mistake new entrepreneurs make is not signing with their middle initial.  The next was not clarifying who owns what.  The point is do everything in writing and make it legal as demonstrated by this story in Jeff Cox Blog .

Hierarchical Temporal Memory is a model of how the brain works which was developed by Jeff Hawkins of Palm Pilot fame.  It is  known that synapses form rapidly.  One has to learn things multiple times to stimulate synapse development to store knowledge.  The brain recognizes patterns in 4 dimensions (including a temporal dimension).   That is how we predict future states and why we enjoy music.  

The hippocampus is an old area of the brain connected to the neo-cortex short term storage that is vital for learning.  As you see the world most of the states immediately go away.  The hippocampus quickly stores patterns until they can be implanted deeper in the brain.  It’s a way of remembering at the moment.  Without it every day would be Groundhog Day.  

 

 Jeff Hawkins 2003 Ted Talk with his predictions for AI

Where we are now.

Jeff Hawkins speaking at UBC in 2010
Jeff Hawkins 10 minute talk 2011 at MIT
Jeff Hawkins speaking in 2012
Google milestone 
16000 processors teach themselves to recognize a cat
Numenta : This is used commercially
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