200 Posts!!

200 is a completely irrelevant number, but I happened to notice it in the blog-log and it made me stop and think about what that meant. I started this blog between the 1st and 2nd semester as an experiment in trying to foster a new type of conversation between my classmates. My hope was that they might extend some of the classroom discussions online. That never really panned out, but I learned a number of other lessons in it's place:

1. A blog, like anything else, takes practices. A lot of practice. With 200 posts, I've created just under one per day, which isn't too bad. It forces me to find a style (maybe 3-4 paragraphs), but also allows me to try some new things (embed videos, etc.). I am by no means approaching a "moderately average" level for quality, but by making it habitual it does force me to consolidate my thoughts and find ways to communicate them.
2. I have found that a number of people/classmates do occasionally read the blog, but many of their comments are sent to me via email or verbally (face-to-face). I'm surprised by how many people tell me they don't want to communicate their ideas or feedback in public. I would think that MBA students seeking to become higher-level leaders would welcome the opportunity to practice their public writing or communication, but I vastly under-estimated that element of the blog.
3. As I've mentioned before, it's been amazing to me how many people from foreign countries have visited. I hope that maybe that means I'm starting to take a more international view of the world and those international posts are somewhat interesting. The international aspect of our MBA program has easily been the most interestng portion for me.

The other experiment with the blog was to gain a much greater set of "hands-on" experiences with social media and online communities. This is becoming such a huge part of marketing, branding, communicating, community building (internally & externally for companies and new ideas), that I felt like I needed to really understanding it from the ground up. Could I do a better job of building my personal brand? Could I effectively communicate new or complicated ideas? Could I foster discussion with new communities of people with common interests? Could I master some of the basic techniques needed to spread content and ideas around the Internet?

The answer to all those questions is still a work in progress, but I definitely know 1000% more now than I did just 12 months ago. I've been able to take the learnings from this blog and turn it into a Social Media strategy for my company that has drawn over 100,000 visits to our company blog, 50,000 visits to our company's YouTube channel, and over 25,000 downloads of collateral that helps to drive new product sales.

So thank you to anyone that has taken the time to read the blog and provide any feedback. I've found it to be a great experiment and a needed outlet for my itch to write. I'll continue with it through our graduation in December, and take the learnings with me to my various other professional outlets. Maybe I'll be able to get to 300 before the program is completed.

Paying More for "Something" Better

One of the interesting things about MBA programs is that the later stages tend to produce the best thinking. You've been exposed to more concepts, new ideas and new ways of thinking from smart classmates. Here's an example of how many concepts start coming together:

I wrote yesterday about the innovative concept of "Plenty" currency in Pittsboro, NC as they look to encourage local business. In this case, it's local residents making a conscious decision to support the local economy. Whether that is motivated by discounted pricing, or local pride would need to be investigated, but I suspect it's a combination of both.

But what happens when you'd be asked to pay more for something, where the that "something" might not be a physical attribute. For example, take this discussion on Fair-Labour iPod costs from Umair Haque. Initially he lays out some calculations for how much price is affected by an element that some people disagree with, namely Chinese labor*. While not exact calculations, he highlights roughly what the cost differences would be if US labor was used. Then he poses the difficult question, "Would you be willing to pay more for the iPod to give yourself the peace of mind that it was 'built in America'"? In essence he's asking if you're willing to sacrifice you're near-term wallet for the potential of longer-term prosperity (not guaranteed) in the area where you live?

[NOTE: *after speaking with some US companies that use Chinese labor during our trip, it's important to remember that those workers are in those jobs to better their lives and their families. Their perception of the low wages isn't the same as what we have in affluent America. Just noting this for completeness of viewpoints on foreign labor.]

Haque then goes on to talk about the multiplicative effect this type of thinking can have on the overall prosperity of an economy that's built on "creating new value". The difficult piece of his argument isn't that its not possible, it's how to convince the everyday person to make those considerations. It highlights the same types of challenges I'm starting to explore on my Environmental Capitalist blog.

To make this change of thinking possible, it starts getting at the types of things my classmate Gregg Lewis is constantly trying to teach me with regard to Environmentally Sustainable architecture.

• It's about trying to break people of the habit of measuring "value" based on 20th century measurements (price/sq.ft, cost on the price-tag, etc.)
• It's about helping people understand the broader impact their consumption decisions have on the economy and environment. What does saving $1 on the purchase price translate into for the overall local/state/national economy? What does it translate into for environmental costs (transportation, disposal, etc.)?
• It's about helping people understand that the availability of "immediacy" consumption isn't really satisfying the true needs of people, it's just satisfying the immediacy impulses.

Changing behaviors is difficult (see "failed diets" and "lack of savings"), but I believe this type of mindset is going to be critical to adopt as we proceed into the 21st century. Consuming more intelligently forces better designs from manufacturers, as well as forcing us to think about the bigger impact our day-to-day decisions have on our role in the global ecosystem.

Starting Something on the Side (The Environmental Capitalist)

Inspiring by an upcoming class project, a few passionate classmates, an Adam Carolla podcast with Ed Bagley Jr, and the horrendous smog in the great cities of China, I decided to start a side project called The Environmental Capitalist. Going completely against everything I've learned about strategy, planning and business models in this MBA program, I'm not exactly sure where it will go. It feels like it needs to be a community building effort, with a few splashes of education thrown in. I have a bunch of ideas, but we'll see where it goes. Check in from time to time to see if anything interesting emerges.