Sustainable Ideas - How hard can they be?
Enzo Ferrari was a visionary with a passion for racing. So much so that he started building road cars to fund his racing team. Naturally, the products that turned out to be optimized for the street had a ton of pedigree, precision and speed. Qualities that has made Ferrari one of the most recognisable brands today. It's important to note that I have mentioned the word 'brand' and nothing related to the automotive domain. Of course, it has continued to churn out legendary cars like the Enzo, 458 etc., without losing it's halo in the Formula 1 world. An evocative name, Ferrari has now resorted to making helmets in carbon fiber that match the color of your car's steering wheel and paint brake calipers in some Hawaiian color if you're willing to pay the extra moolah. They now have branded teddy bears which might be the perfect gift if your valentine is a petrol head or branded pens, watches, wallets, perfumes, shirts, backpacks, sunglasses, snow boards, basically anything you can sell with an automotive theme. You can probably match your brand new Ferrari with all these accessories and have a scale model on your desk at both your home and office. That's quite a lot branding on products that you might or might need with a prancing horse stamped onto them.
This is a sort of follow up to my previous post where I mentioned the Swiss Army knife has become a commodity. Ferrari, with the recognition and halo gained over the years is more accessible than ever, however in a different domain altogether. You can probably have a themed room of some of the most recognizable brands in the world. What people make of such a lifestyle is beyond my understanding and I'll refrain from such judgements.
'Innovation', the word which is probably the most loosely used term in today's press is a hard act to follow. Once the hype dies down, companies are forced to come up with newer, 'better' versions of a product which was cutting just a few months ago. In the pursuit of living upto these expectations, to keep the board happy and to ensure the stock prices remain high, decisions are taken which often result in nothing but bloating up of ideas. Over the years, I have seen some great ideas mature, but the trouble is that they tend to lose focus after the initial momentum is lost. Sony is another classic example. Trying to do too many things, they were lost in their own sea of brands and tried to cram every single one of them into their products. The 'walkman' was the pioneer in portable music players; a true innovation. Now, Sony is still pushing this brand in their smartphones. Why? Isn't it time to move on and understand market dynamics? Re-branding is a tough exercise, but too much baggage is clearly not the answer. I guess companies need to start letting go of legacy brands and focus more on the products which they think are great or forward thinking.
The cycle is repeated in the sense that once they have realised how lost they are, companies start announcing the 'One' concept. The idea that all products, services come under one umbrella. They hire major consulting corporations to understand which redundancies can be but and how they can trim the organization to attain the goal that was first set by the visionary who started it in the first place. I hope you get the drift.
We can take a few ideas from this in our personal lives as well. I've seen quite a lot of us lose focus over the longer run and tend to do too many things. That's not to say one must not experiment, but understanding where to draw the line is very important. Just something to think about. Do note that I have immense respect to the names mentioned here, but I thought it was a story worth telling. Just something to think about.
This is a sort of follow up to my previous post where I mentioned the Swiss Army knife has become a commodity. Ferrari, with the recognition and halo gained over the years is more accessible than ever, however in a different domain altogether. You can probably have a themed room of some of the most recognizable brands in the world. What people make of such a lifestyle is beyond my understanding and I'll refrain from such judgements.
'Innovation', the word which is probably the most loosely used term in today's press is a hard act to follow. Once the hype dies down, companies are forced to come up with newer, 'better' versions of a product which was cutting just a few months ago. In the pursuit of living upto these expectations, to keep the board happy and to ensure the stock prices remain high, decisions are taken which often result in nothing but bloating up of ideas. Over the years, I have seen some great ideas mature, but the trouble is that they tend to lose focus after the initial momentum is lost. Sony is another classic example. Trying to do too many things, they were lost in their own sea of brands and tried to cram every single one of them into their products. The 'walkman' was the pioneer in portable music players; a true innovation. Now, Sony is still pushing this brand in their smartphones. Why? Isn't it time to move on and understand market dynamics? Re-branding is a tough exercise, but too much baggage is clearly not the answer. I guess companies need to start letting go of legacy brands and focus more on the products which they think are great or forward thinking.
The cycle is repeated in the sense that once they have realised how lost they are, companies start announcing the 'One' concept. The idea that all products, services come under one umbrella. They hire major consulting corporations to understand which redundancies can be but and how they can trim the organization to attain the goal that was first set by the visionary who started it in the first place. I hope you get the drift.
We can take a few ideas from this in our personal lives as well. I've seen quite a lot of us lose focus over the longer run and tend to do too many things. That's not to say one must not experiment, but understanding where to draw the line is very important. Just something to think about. Do note that I have immense respect to the names mentioned here, but I thought it was a story worth telling. Just something to think about.
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