This YouTube clip that shows Vendor/Client relationships in real world situations is cheaper than therapy. Having been in the business for many years, it immediately brings back a number of people who’ve tried the same line and when one jumps on that train, nothing goes quite as it should. Every time I’ve hired a plumber*, mechanic or visit a doctor, it bewilders the mind because these professionals put their price out there, take it or leave it. So we realize there is a longtime behavior and culture in our varied professional services/businesses where this video is pulling from. Not every Client is like this of course, but enough to make one laugh and cry simultaneously. Although direct and unapologetic in tone, it reminded me of an old evolt.org posting where they tried to “inject some reality into the fantasy.” Like anything, these are just growing pains one has to go through in getting better in business and life.
* And although we’re somewhat generalizing, we realize that most professionals struggle with customers/pricing in their own ways, as found within this Seattle Plumbing Company’s article.
Filed under: Business
Bruce Nussbaum of BusinessWeek titled his article “CEO’s Must Be Designers, Not Just Hire Them. Think Steve Jobs And iPhone” and considering the strong and ongoing popular respect for Apple’s products, he cuts right to it from the start. People have written that we’re in the Creative Age, a time where innovation is inspiring further innovation at an unprecedented rate. A highlight of his article (for the designer in me that is): “Design is so popular today mostly because business sees design as connecting it to the consumer populace in a deep, fundamental and honest way. An honest way…if you are in the authenticity and integrity business then you have to think design.” And by no means are we just talking about how something looks of course…we too are believers that form must follow function. But this Web 2.0 era gives us plenty of design examples around the experiential and invisible, such as YouTube and RSS feeds, or when considering development of Web sites, we think of our own progression as Ruby on Rails and ActionScript 3.0 further our effectiveness, efficiency, and possibilities. Anyway, give Nussbaum’s article a read and I imagine that a few points will resonate and inspire further thought.
