ThoughtSpurs

" The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory. " Aldo Gucci - 1938 Yet another reminder that a great business is founded on a sound idea.

BrandWorld won the prestigeous New Zealand Marketing Magazine award for Business to Business on Thursday night with Family Health Diary , following on the heels of Eating Well in the same category last year. Pleased for the team (my office is in the BrandWorld office, though I sold my share in the company in 2001), and chuffed to have created both brands for the company. I'm hoping Idealog magazine does as well in the Magazine publisher's Association awards when they roll around next year. We weren't eligble to enter this year. On to bigger and better things now. Considering launching a theatre company. Something a bit different. We'll see, might be too high risk. A couple of other projects pending… I'll keep you posted.

This morning I spoke to an assembly at Orewa College, north of Auckland. The topic was choosing careers. I told my own story, of leaving school when I was 15, armed with University Entrance, working in a plastics factory on the night shift (read my previous blog about that experience - Character ), how I returned to study (though not graphic design–as I had always imagined–but the dark arts of advertising and marketing. The twists and turns of my career, in agencies (large and small), IT and publishing of one kind and another. My message, be prepared. Get an education, gain command of a domain (whether it is marketing, communications, science or sport) and refresh it over time. Make contact with other realms - if you are in science, make time for the arts, and vice versa. Be flexible. Change will happen. None of the tasks I learned in the early days of my advertising exist today and the skills I have acquired along the way, particularly in the digital arena have been essential for keep...

I have a new computer. I am very pleased with it - a MacBook Pro. It comes bundled with some funky software called Photobooth which served to remind me just how juvenile I can be. Aside from the very sexy aesthetic (LOVE the silky keys), I also invested in an Airport wireless base station. Technology is a wonderful thing. I have been muddling by with old equipment as my iBook's screen died, then the power supply to my old WallStreet Powerbook burst into flame. I will try not to drive my car over the top of it (as I did with my Titanium G4). Haven't been particularly well over the past few days. I will never again scoff at news reports that chicken can be dangerous if not cooked or handled carefully. Of course few days spent close to the toilet is hardly comparable with the undeclared war on civilians in Lebanon. Speak up. Standing mutely by is unacceptable.

One of the extraordinary things about visiting Wellington is how often pointed remarks are made about my home port - which is Auckland. Gush as I might about how engaging Wellington is…and it is… lowering my guard would leave leave me open to petty barbs. Not only did people I know feel the inclination to set the record straight about the superiority of the Capital, and the infamy of Auckland, but also anyone from shopkeepers to the otherwise very well trained coat-check guy at TePapa . A little harsh, I thought. I am, after all, quite benign. Interesting none-the-less. A spot of participant observation in my ongoing anthropological expedition through life. I had been visitng to speak to the assembled clients of Baldwins , the Intellectual property attorneys, who sponsor my magazine, Idealog . Vincent Heeringa, one of business partners in the venture and I reprised a double act we had earlier performed in Auckland. Our presentation was a light-hearted romp through some of the concep...

A friend recommended that I watch the BBC show Dragon's Den , she absolutely raved about the progamme and insisted it would be a perfect fit for Idealog . When I finally got around to watching an episode I was immediately hooked. Wannabe entrepreneurs vie for venture capital from a panel of proven entrepreneurs. Some applicants have business acumen to the same degree that sad sacks who try out for American Idol have singing talent. Others are persuasive and have genuinely good ideas. The show can be cruel. But, then, so can life. The show is compelling for its human drama. There is also the opportunity to pit one's own analytic skills against the Dragon's - would I invest in the idea? In something of a coup Idealog has scored the sponsorship right to the Australian edition of the show, starting tommorow night on TVOne at 8.30. Mark it in your must see TV diary. We have done a couple of little spots to promote the mag, which I present to you now for your viewing pleasure. S...

She's one of the most successful dance exponents in the world and continues to earn royalties for over 130 works she has created. But, unlike the meteoric upward path of Mozart, one of her touchstone influences, she knows the dull thud of failure. In 1966 in England one of her performances was met with the following review in the Evening Standard: "Three girls, one of them named Twyla Tharp, appeared at the Albert Hall last evening and threatened to do the same again tonight." In her book - The Creative Habit - Twyla Tharp, the renowned choreographer describes three dimensions of failure: 1. The failure of nerve When you have everything going for you but the guts to support your idea and explore your concept fully. Do you worry about looking silly? "...looking foolish is good for you says Tharp (isn't that a great name?). 2. Failure through repetition Do you keep doing what you've always done because 'it works'? Tharp says its a problem when you cling...