I was reading Fast Company’s list of "Most Innovative Companies" when it struck me: Curly was wrong.
You know-- leather-faced Curly from City Slickers. Specifically when he (played by all-time badass Jack Palance) was imparting his cowboy wisdom on hapless (and now similarly leather-faced Oscar host) Billy Crystal that the key to life was 'just one thing.’
All apologies, but wrong.
Life is about a bunch of things. Big things. Smaller things. But "things" plural. Fast Company’s top four most innovative companies—Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon—have this decidedly in common. In a seemingly ‘there’s an app for that world’ where ‘do one thing and do it better than anyone else’ is the mantra, they stand in contrast to a degree. Their utility is not one-dimensional or limited in any way. Their future seems wider, not deeper.
I won’t belabor the Applification of America. Apple is pervasive, thanks largely to ease of use and enormous utility. Apple works like you think it should and does a bunch of stuff that makes your life better or more enjoyable—even if you didn’t know it prior. What started with the iconic Mac has ballooned into something much, much more—a mix of hardware and software wrapped around an elegant... Read more
Archive for Patrick Reynolds 
Curly Was Wrong
The Lollipop That Licked Me
Therein lies the glorious dilemma, the terrible beauty of media's future. It can't be categorized. It's creativity, media science, and technology whipped up in a blender-- served shaken and stirred. And a heady cocktail it certainly is.
Have Fun Storming the Castle!
Incumbents can trot out all the data they want about things not changing for them or improving even but we all know the score, don’t we? "Move along. Nothing to see here," just won't cut it any more. Meanwhile, most of them are readying for the inevitable battle for hearts, minds, and advertising dollars. So it becomes a matter of calculation inside the castle. What kind of food stores do we have? Ammunition? Willing and able warriors? Strength of will? And what of our “opponents”? How many barbarians are there really at the gate? How many are bandwagon gatecrashers and how many are true insurgents in it to win it? How are they armed, rationed, and financed? Critically, who has the wind of the will of the people behind them? (This last point is the Magna Carta for the rebels. Given the choice, people almost always take more choice over less. Technology means more choice.)
Be unAmerican?
This post is a reminder of the importance of customer service and brand loyalty.
