This is the new home page of The Brand Man.....

Brands exists because their companies make people 'feel special'. People 'need' to 'feel special'.

Companies with global Brands charge a premium for their goods or services because they attend to consumers' needs not just their wants.

Companies that attend to consumers wants usually operate at a discount to the market.  They are forced to discount their prices in order to compete with the other price takers in their industry.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 12:28 AM NZT

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A tax on your LinkedIn or emails clicks? Could this be in prospect in our emerging digital economy? For 20 years I thought governments would (should?) tax the flow of information. Australia had a tax on deposits and withdrawals from banks. This tax was an information tax as is the GST (Goods and Services Tax) that replaced it. Unless we limit the size and scope of government spending we probably need information taxes. Most people will think the ideas in this video are mad. They may be mad but this is a discussion/debate that we must have - ask the Greeks. See http://goo.gl/D8FcF

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 11:04 AM NZT

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Just back from another great trip to America.  The people are welcoming, hospitable, and engaging.  There is so much to admire about the people and yet the country is suffering a deep malaise.  The middle class has been gutted. The gap between rich and poor has grown.  The culture of poverty has expanded.  The indifference of the rich to the rest of the population is tangible.

When you travel to America today one would do well to focus in tightly on the good.  Avoid the bad.  Prepare oneself to put up with a lot that is ugly.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 5:44 PM EADT

Updated: Wednesday, 20 February 2013 5:53 PM EADT

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American voters will decide to give America a chance to arrest the sharp decline that has been exacerbated by two failed Presidents - GW Bush and B Obama.

Romney will win easily - by 3-5% on popular vote and by over 300 electoral votes.. 

Why is there no Robert Kennedy left in American politics?  Bobbie was a tough man who was far from perfect but he was a patriot who saw wrongs and went out to right them. Where have all the great American pragmatists gone? Perhaps they have been swamped by generational change that has led America to a less demanding place. I fear that America today would not find time for Robert Kennedy.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 12:41 PM EADT

Updated: Monday, 5 November 2012 12:44 PM EADT

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American society is imploding....

What happened to America's spirit of generousity in tolerating difference, debating ideas, encouraging diversity, and being willing to agree to disagree? America is in decline... perhaps this is so because the American society has lost its generous spirit ...that spirit built America and made her great...after WWII it was the Marshal Plan that helped the defeated nations rebuild...today the spirit of generousity is being replaced by the pursuit of 'fairness'...a cry for fairness that divides the American people

She got a bigger piece of cake than me - now that not is clearly not "fair"...but she replies, I got the biggest piece of cake because I am the most needy and thus the most deserving of all of us...that is the discourse being promoted by the American media today...

What type of society has to squabble over every piece of the cake? surely it is a society in decline - a society headed for 'cake share wars' because the lack of trust between the American people will shrink not grow the size of the total size of the cake....

Wake up America! you all can do better than this...America needs an injection of generousity not more of this bitterness and division based on some very questionable definitions of what is 'fair'

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 10:38 AM NZT

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Generousity vs Fairness....

those who want to succeed in business need be generous to a fault...growing up, I remember the generousity of vendors...it me feel good, it made me feel special, it made me want to be generous towards others...that spirit of generousity is not so common today...indeed, when you are presented with simple acts of generousity today you may be forgiven for thinking it is 'remarkable'...simple acts of generousity include gifts of time, tolerance of difference, acceptance of diversity, willingness to suspend judgement until a radical idea is prototyped, etc...it seems obvious to me that if a society is generous towards its members, as well as the outsiders, then it stands a good chance of success in a digital global C21st..

those who want to succeed in government, unions, large organisations, social programs need be wedded to the notion of 'fairness'...they need to be able to argue for it at every turn and thus, to be ready to denounce those who are not practicing 'fairness' (that is the fairness they define)...to most of us the notion of fairness is actually a negative (for me it is the cause of most of vitriol in European, US, British, Australian politics today)... the problem for me is that no matter how much 'fairness' is shoved our way we are always looking for more...is it fair that she gets more cake than me? sure I got the biggest share of the cake but that is because I am poor and needy and that is only 'fair' after all...it always strikes me as somewhat strange that those who advocate 'fairness' the strongest/loudest claim to be 'progressives'...

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 1:52 PM NZT

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A long long time ago i wrote a thesis on the displacement effects of revenue and spending in government...my thesis showed that the more revenue a government has at its disposal, including borrowings, the more it finds to spend it on...this finding was in sharp contrast to the common thesis of the day that government spending was driven by demand...well it turns out that commonly held idea, or ideal, is wrong....

fast forward to Paul Ryan (the Republican Chairman of Budget Committee in House of Representatives in Washington DC and next Vice President of the US) he understands my thesis...if elected Vice President he will work to cut the supply of revenue to the US government and thus limit its impact on America...he, like me, believes this is a necessary first step for the US to begin to arrest its $US16 Trillion of public debt...if Ryan is not elected Vice President he will continue to work to cut revenue collections for the US government....

Paul Ryan has got hold of a truly 'big idea' for government in the US... 

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 11:04 AM NZT

Updated: Wednesday, 15 August 2012 11:16 AM NZT

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Empty and crowded place thinking? Is this really the state of political discourse in America? If so no wonder America is in terminal decline... If I understood the proposition it states "those with a need for government live in crowded places and they are the ones trying to improve the efficiency of government"... Then I say "good luck" to the crowded place people (including Occupy Wall Street Movement) with that project - they will need to sharply lift their game because surely the evidence so far is they are failing and failing dramatically... They are unable to improve K to 12 education, college education is becoming way too expensive, as is Obama Care Health, as is entitlement spending, government deficit financing, etc. The costs to future generations (in higher taxes, lost opportunities, decline of American innovation, etc) of crowded place people thinking when applied to the current Federal government run agenda is rising not falling...The growth of cities seems to be a continuing phenomena in the US and so it can be expected that crowded place thinking will come to dominate in C21st America as she declines... Surely with America's decline (through less growth, innovation, effective wealth distribution through paid work, lower impact of big unions without violence, decreased authority in foreign affairs and trade) comes an more pressing need for the dominance of government in people's lives backed by crowded place thinking...If this is the future of America then the real minorities by 2030 will surely be the vacant place thinkers not illegal immigrants, low income workers, poorly educated citizens, etc...Dominance of the crowded place thinkers is a good thing for those who belong to the push but it is not welcomed by the deviant vacant place thinkers (including the Tea Party) who will become more vocal and violent as they claim to advocate democracy, diversity, and ultimately less not more government or less not more crowded place Groupthink...

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 1:21 PM NZT

Updated: Friday, 29 June 2012 1:25 PM NZT

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• The digital age is coming to help us all to reshape our economy...what do I mean? at the very least between now and 2050 we must shed a lot of jobs in retail, media, transportation, etc... it means big changes must be made to the ways we distribute goods and services around our nation...it means people with jobs in 2050 will get better pay for doing less, they will be better educated, and they will actively compete in a global pool of talent ...the role of government will have to change as we adopt to a workforce that is more flexible, higher paid, better educated, and more global in outlook...Australia's time in the sun is just beginning if and only if we can marrying resources mining with online brain work...See http://goo.gl/X20U4

  

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 10:15 AM NZT

Updated: Friday, 15 June 2012 6:58 PM NZT

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in the wonderful state of Wisconsin the battle of our age is raging - the population has had a gut full of it and who can blame them because nothing will be resolved by tomorrow's vote...in an almost unique recall election the incumbent governor who is a small government republican is being challenged by a big union democrat candidate ....it is easy to characterise this battle, as most do, as a simple right vs left ideological war or the tea party vs occupy wall street but it is ultimately about much much more than that...to my mind this election is about the real issue facing the developed world since 2000 - that is how do we grow wealth and redistribute wealth in a digital economy?....the old analogue or mass production economy ways of redistribution through regulated work/jobs is becoming less and less effective in a networked economy...I contend, no assert, that today the nature of work has changed fundamentally - in C20th each worker could point to his/her role in a value chain and calculate just how much or how little value-add he/she brought to it... today the worth of one's contribution to a digital economic network is all about just how much use value an individual brings to the enterprise...use value is a measure of consumer or customer satisfaction not a measure of production throughput....in a digital economy huge wealth will accrue to a few people (eg Zuckerberg and Sandberg at Facebook) without the need for massive employment of others and without the multiplier effects that has on income, let alone wealth, distribution...the real problem for future generations is how will we be able to adequately redistribute wealth in a 'jobless society'....should it be done by increasing the power and influence of the state or can we find a free enterprise way?  Sweden can argue it has and always has had a good mix of both but others will say it still is a big state model...there is no viable free enterprise model at present and that is why most western democracies are locked in a ideological warfare....if we were to adopt the big state solution then western democracies would begin to look and act more like Chinese cantons and less like the open forums that allow meaningless ideological mudslinging battles like the one raging in Wisconsin....see http://goo.gl/aeAw4

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 11:31 AM NZT

Updated: Tuesday, 5 June 2012 11:34 AM NZT

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Facebook needs people who can create wealth not just spend it Facebook social dreaming is not enough to rival Apple See http://goo.gl/sAvLd

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 12:30 PM NZT

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Facebook must now come up with a social network solution that fits the next stage of the Internet - mobile... The current idea is to built and sell a Facebook phone - not sure how that will solve their problems though...Lets look at the core of those problems....Facebook is not geared to serve a population on the moves that accesses content via a mobile device that is linked to a cloud...Issue 1) People on the move will spend less time on Facebook so advertisers have to be both relevant and remarkable...Issue 2) Facebook on the move needs advertisements that are interactive entertainment which engage users in ways that can easily be shared across one' social network...There are more issues but those will do for starters...These are interesting times for Facebook because whatever happens the Zuckerberg team must now set about to
innovate their core social sharing model...

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 1:55 PM NZT

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Facebook may already be too big to fail - what a concept eh?... if the money being put into FB shares came/comes from the workers' 401k (superannuation funds) then surely the Obama White House must be looking at a Government bail out before the end of his Presidency...Facebook, to me, is our ' dead canary in the mine shaft' symbol of an over-hyped US economy where public goods (like social networks built on borrowed money) are more valued than wealth generating assets like the Keystone pipeline...Facebook will do us all a huge favour if it brings to a close the fascination our world has with digital social networks... the amounts of money, labour, technology, time and what passes for intellectual property being wasted on social networking is to me simply outrageous...

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 3:37 PM NZT

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Facebook is an IPO flop..its revenue model is flawed...sell your shares while you can...its a good social experiment not a good business...

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 1:42 PM NZT

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time for a rethink of the workplace...casual work will replace full time jobs...higher pay will replace fixed workplace conditions as negotiated by unions...unions will slowly fade as employees make their own decisions on where and how to work...this will be a natural evolution to accompany the inclusion of Asian talent into the global work pool...protected jobs and industries will fade out....open trade will flourish and it will attract new talent online and on the workplace floor...

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 1:00 PM NZT

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people live in a facebook, twitter, google+, ebay, skype, apple, etc world... but the businesses they work for, and within, are not geared to their new social skill sets...the workforce has moved beyond the limitations of its employers...

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 1:38 PM NZT

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C21st politics fails us 1) big issues are global not national 2) politicians are delegates not representatives 3) ideology trumps integrity

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 12:04 PM NZT

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most people, including me, cannot imagine what $US16 trillion looks like... it is too big to contemplate so most people ignore it...problem is it cannot be ignored...here is why... all the revenue raised by US federal government goes on interest payments and mandated entitlement payments...that means all the rest of federal government spending is borrowed...including spending on education, infrastructure, law and order, etc...thus the deficit on government spending is increasing by $US 1 trillion per year... enough already....

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 4:57 PM NZT

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business has changed they say.... well not so much.... business was done inside people's heads and sealed with a handshake 100 years ago... today it is still done inside people's heads and sealed with an electronic handshake...those who do the electronic handshake best do the best business deals...the electronic handshake is the experience of doing business with you as told to you, online, by your peers... the electronic handshake is the experience that others have that gives you a 100% delivery record on ebay...that handshake is priceless, it is what makes doing business today the same process as it was 100 years ago...

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 4:40 PM NZT

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