Here is a good lesson for business owners and management.  Do not pretend that you don’t know what is going on in the business world.  It only makes you look like a fool.

There was an episode of the West Wing in which the staff insist the President not use his opponent’s name because it gives him free publicity.  The President asks that if he doesn’t use his opponent’s name, won’t it just look like he doesn’t know his name?  The absurdity being that everyone already knows both names; presidential elections are like that.  (Whether you are Republican, Democrat, or hate politics, by now you know that names of the two guys running this year.)

This brings me to today’s post.  I always laugh when people or companies try and pretend to be oblivious of the obvious to make themselves try and look good.  Ironically, they only end up making themselves look foolish.

The folks at Microsoft’s new online push have released a new version of Windows Live Writer that addresses some of my previous problems with it, so I’ve re-installed it and am starting to use it again.  So far, so good.

Windows Live Writer’s Absurd Omission

While setting up my blogs, I noticed that Microsoft has declared itself to be the victor in the blogging universe despite the fact that it is currently a tiny niche player.  When you setup Windows Live Writer to work with your blog you get a setup screen like this one:

If you aren’t laughing out loud right now, you probably don’t know much about blogging.  The most used blogging service is WordPress.  The other most common ones are Blogger and TypePad.  These are so ubiquitous it’s like, not including Google, Yahoo, and MSN in your new search related software.  Only, on the Microsoft blogging software, none of the top three are listed.  Sure, they are there under “Another Weblog Service,” but what kind of message does this box send?  If you have a great new search product and it says “What Search Engine Do You Use?” — Bob’s Search, Lycos Search, or Another Search Engine, what kind of message does that send regarding your understanding of your target users?

Microsoft hopes that this box add legitimacy to its Johnny-come-lately addition to the online universe called Live Spaces.  What it really does is give everyone a big fat reminder that Microsoft is not only not a leader in the online world, but frequently a hinderance.  (It’s Internet Explorer is legendary for it’s terrible implementation of standards it supposedly supports — Search anywhere for IE and CSS for examples.)  Furthermore, it suggests that Microsoft is pretending that there aren’t thousands of people and sites out there who have been up and running and doing just fine while Microsoft was trying to decide if the this whole Web 2.0 thing was real or not.  So, your average Internet professional (like Moi) sees this screen and thinks, “Who are they kidding?”  I mean, I’m assuming that they aren’t delusional enough to know that the likes of WordPress and Blogger make up the vast majority of sites out there.   So, they have to be doing it on purpose.  I guess they hope people will be setting this software up and decide to give one of these services a try.

What they have actually done is to put out a software that reinforces the notion that Microsoft software is cumbersome and difficult to setup.  Not long from now, other blogging software will update or a new one will come along with features.  But, this other software will have easy default buttons for setting up WordPress and Blogger and the reviews will start to say things like “Much easier to setup than Windows Live Writer” and before you know it, Microsoft has released yet another product that no one has any interest in actually using.  The only users they’ll be left with are the lowest end people who use whatever comes pre-installed on their computer without doing any research or investigation.  Needless to say, these won’t be the people producing the top blogs on the Internet.

So, welcome to Windows Live Writer.  It is cool today, but absurd corporate politics have doomed it to be a weak player in the market.  Feel free to use it as a place holder until a Mozilla backed version of blogging software comes along.

I was thinking, for some reason, this morning about the movie Catch Me If You Can, with Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Hanks. In the movie, Leonardo’s character impersonates a lawyer. In order to do so he has to pass the state bar exam. This is the only thing that Tom Hanks’ character can’t figure out. Leo finally tells him that he just studied for two weeks and passed. My wife is a lawyer and is dubious of that claim.

Be that as it may, I have always been able to learn things from books. I learn them so well, that I can retain most of it and can therefore pass tests pretty well too. I got a certification in Netware back in the day, having never touched the product (just read the study book). I also got a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification without taking any of the classes. More recently, I was able to get my Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification by just taking the “accelerated” courses my firm offered. The “regular” course of study is over 3 years and the accelerated took just 12 months. The catch is that I quit before we finished, so I did the last 3 classes on my own. Although I signed up for online training I never did anything but read the books they sent me and do the practice questions. I passed the first time out. The failure rate on that test is something like 45% and over 50% for first timers, so it’s nothing to sneeze at.

Business Coaching & Business Consulting, but no paper skills

The reason this is intriguing to me is that we offer business and management consulting and coaching. What makes us different is that our techniques and procedures are very much grounded in real world tangible every day skills whereas most others offering similar services seem to work with much more “soft” skills. For example, a manager getting the advantage of our coaching gets real tips on how to manage his people. After all, this is what being a manager is all about. When I say “real tips,” I mean actual language that can be used to diffuse a situation or actual disciplinary actions that should be taken and so on. Others ofter “team building” or “goal setting.” Don’t get me wrong, we do that too, but that is where we start, not where we end.

So, what is the deal with the movie? Despite the experience and skills that we bring to the table, and the much more useful and sought after techniques we use, we don’t necessarily have the kinds of things that certain people look for on paper. For example, my experience comes from consulting and contracting in dozens of companies and seeing many management styles and many failed business strategies. But, my degree is in Biochemistry, and my only job title that matches the service is my current one. (I’ve done plenty of this type of thing before, but my title was always something more technical.) So, to certain people (usually those who have never met us, but who have to sign off on the request) it doesn’t look like we have the proper stature. Enter the CPA.

CPA = Big Paper Skills

The CPA exam is a multi-part exam which has multiple study guides availible for it. I don’t know everything, but I know plenty about business, math, taxes, and so on. I’m not saying I already know everything, but I do have a very firm grounding in the concepts. Using the aforementioned learning from reading skill, I’m confident I can pass the CPA exams and then put on that piece of paper that I have not only real world experience, but also that I am a Certified Public Accountant. I’ve got some research to do, but hopefully this is something I can make happen in between my four businesses, the book I want to write, the products I want to market, and …

One of the biggest pop-culture phenomenons in recent memory is the Atkins Diet. With millions of devotees who consider it the perfect diet, the original book spawned dozens of additional books, web sites, and more. Even among non-dieters the words Atkins Diet are familiar as are the central tenants of the diet. What allowed for its huge success and how can that be duplicated for success elsewhere.

The Atkins Diet’s enormous success can be attributed not to the diet itself, but rather to a few carefully chosen appeals to the human mind, and to the American mind in particular. These attributes can be repeated in other arenas in order to provide similar success among the population at large, and more specifically among large populations of unsophisticated adopters. Each factor below provides a crucial entry point into the mind of a non-expert which by definition make up the largest population in any area.

Easy

First and foremost, the Atkins Diet is easy. Although released as an entire book, the vast majority of the book is spent not on the diet itself, but on the various thereoies behind the diet and subsequently the “proof” that those theroies are right. This is a common format for books of this nature. What separates the Atkins diets from others however is the total simplicity of the diet’s central tenant, namely, “Don’t Eat Carbohydrates.” That’s it. Everything else is simply a nuance to that point. Obviously, it is impossible to go through life without ingesting a single carbohydrate, so the diet does address a number, but that is the types of detail which are simply left behind by the massess as they move forward. “No Carbohydrates,” is all anyone remembers about the Atkins diet, and frankly it is all they need. This stunning simplicity allows not only for the least intellegent person to follow the diet, but also to evangilize it. Indeed, a half-witted monkey with a translator can tell another person that they will lose weight if they stop eating carbohydrates.

POSITIVE FOCUS – ELIMINATION OF NEGATIVES

There are no words to describe just how far the Atkins Diet goes in its positive focus. Every possible negative thought is banished by the diet itself. In fact, the diet somehow even compells those who describe it to add a BONUS posititve to their discussion. If you think back to the first time you heard about the Atkins Diet from another person I’m sure you can remember the second sentence uttered after they told you not to eat carbs. “You can even eat bacon!” became the rallying cry of many followers.

The Atkins Diet promoted its supremacy to the exclusion of all other lines of thought. Carbohydrates were not only the cause of obesity, but they were bad for dozens of other reasons as well including the fact that they were not a “natural” part of the human diet. Offered as proof for this statement was the noble caveman who as a hunter/gatherer ate meat, not carbohydrates. Carbohydrates also are the cause of diabetes, being tired, and numerous other troubles. By following the Atkins Diet one not only lost weight, they improved their life.

REPACKAGE

Upon re-examination, one sees not revolution in the Atkins Diet, but a startling similarity to all dieting conventional wisdom. Conventional dieting wisdom suggests the elimination of certain foods from one’s diet. These foods include, chips, cakes, candy, cookies, brownies, donuts, deserts, crackers, processed bread (particularly white bread), sodas, juices that are not 100% juice, cereals, candy bars, most toppings like butter, sour cream, dressing, fatty meats, and several other foods. Ironically, despite its adherents quickness to point out that they can eat bacon, virtually the entire list of banned foods is the same.

To wit, another way to describe the Atkins Diet would be to say: You will lose weight if you do not eat, cake, cookies, chips, candy, brownies, donuts, etc… The only difference between the Atkins Diet and the traditional dieting prohibitions is that meats are left in. Basically, by adding bacon back to the allowed menu, the diet created a “revolution.” The cleverness of using meat as the proverbial carrot is that meat is particularly difficult to eat as a snack or to munch on. Eliminating snacking and random “grazing” would ensure at least some weight loss for the vast majority of those who are overweight.

Indeed, during the Atkins craze a television reporter for the show Dateline did a whole segment on how he had lost weight on the Atkins diet. The story produced a moment of sureal hillarity when the reporter described his old eating habits in contrast to his current eating habits. While sitting in front of a plate of food, he said that for dinner he used to eat, “A bunch of bread, a salad, a baked potato, a steak, and desert.” Under the shocking brand-new unbelieveable Atkins diet he “Skipped the bread, did not eat the potato or desert, and he lost weight!” Really? You ate half the food you used to eat and you lost weight? Shocking!

CONSPIRACY

The Atkins Diet took advantage of one other powerful entry into the human psyche: the conspiracy. A revolutionary idea cannot be truly revolutionary without coming at the expense of the established elite who shamelessly promote the old idiom despite its flaws. In the Atkins Diet books the author is quick to point out that his diet will not meet with welcome from the established medical and weight loss establishments who, of course, are hiding the truth. For the Atkins diet, the conspiracy comes courtisy of years of mis-interpretation of data showing the trouble with carbohydrates. The cave man evidence is used repeatedly to back up this notion. In addition concepts such as “glycimic index” and other real concepts are introduced to the benefit of the diet’s methodology. The fact that the glycimic index is very real and easily found once looked for, only adds credibility to the diet.

CALL TO NIRVANA

No revolution can succeed without offering a path to the better life. The boldest suggest that their new idea is the end all be all idea that everyone has been waiting for. This allows for the proper zeal and insulates its participants from any outside criticism. The Atkins Diet proclaimed on its cover that it was the “Diet Revolution” boldly suggesting that it would be the force that finally swept out the flawed and failed methods of the past, and that those who read it would never need another diet book.

EXPLOITATION OF SUCCESS

The success of the Atkins Diet was quickly turned into more success via the launching of parallel or related ventures. Follow up books came quickly (especially to refute the early criticims launched by the establishment), followed by receipe books, licensed food items, licensed logos for restaraunt menus, web sites, and even food delivery plans. Each subsequent product launch not only provided more buzz, but gave adherents a new place to turn when their attention waivered from their current products. When the book no longer seemed shiny and new, one could simply read the web site for new and more amazing information.

USING THE ATKINS PARADIGM

Whether for business or politics, the Atkins Paradigm can be harnessed for success. By carefully crafting a positive message that is very easy to understand and articulate and then pumping up that message by offering rewards that are being denied by the establishment a business or message can succeed among the masses. When that occurs, one should be ready with follow up products or services which can exploit and continue that success.