Observations-Engagements

Why Groupon is a perfectly Chicago company

It’s hard not to read about Groupon, currently the most mediafied of Chicago companies. It’s got a What’s Hot tab on TechCrunch. It’s national burger weekend deals made Crain’s and other media, and it’s one of several pre-IPO companies cited as examples of a new tech bubble. Groupon brings a lot of tech start-up luster to Chicago.

All that attention–along with discussing innovation at last week’s MIT Enterprise Forum Chicago Whiteboard Challenge and reading Malcom Gladwell’s May 16 New Yorker piece on the story of creativity and innovation at Apple Computer and Xerox PARC–got me thinking about Groupon and its Chicago location.

Chicago is not technology like Silicon Valley or Boston. There is not the mass of high tech here out there. The mass of innovation in Chicago spans a much wider range of industries, as shown by winners of the Chicago Innovation Awards, now in their 10th year.

Chicago is manufacturing (food, healthcare, drugs), finance (economic thought and trading products), and media-entertainment (Oprah and improvisational comedy).

And retailing.

It’s retailing and advertising I think of when I think of Groupon.

Like Chicago retailer innovators Sears, Wards, and Spiegel, Groupon is a retail sales organization. Like old catalogs of those retailers, Groupon relies on a clever copywriting style for its pitches (not without its critics). It also relies on a savvy sales force (akin to buyers) to source and sell local deals. It’s a direct-response sales organization using email rather than postal mail.

Where else would Groupon be? Not the technology garages of Silicon Valley but the old Wards warehouse in Chicago. As Gladwell suggests with innovation, the new Chicago spirit of progress is a new incarnation of the old.

Tags: economics, innovation, marketing, writing

Ideas for Blood Vessels, Captchas, and Cars Win
2011 MIT Enterprise Forum Chicago Whiteboard Challenge

Winners of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Enterprise Forum Chicago provide additional evidence that innovation is alive and well in Chicago in a wide range of sectors. The three winners spanned medical, internet, and personal services.

The MIT Enterprise Forum Chicago Whiteboard Challenge, now in its sixth year, is an ideas contest, with the winners receiving a share in $5,000 in cash prizes. Ten finalists presented their ideas Thursday May 26. The three winners are:

Blood Vessel “BullsEye” Locator, presented by Colin O’Donovan, won the top prize of $3,000. The idea solves the problem medical professionals have in locating arteries when drawing blood and veins for injecting medicines. The BullsEye device provides a two-dimensional representation of a patient’s arteries and veins, allowing medical professionals to insert a needle tip accurately. Consisting of a disposable patch and a reusable optic sensor, the system uses a “razor/razor blade” revenue model. Income would be generated through sales of the patches. The BullsEye locator is being developed by Vaccess Medical, a group of business, medical, and legal students at Northwestern University.

Fun Captcha, presented by Bryan Arturo, captured the $1,500 second prize. Fun Captcha is designed to make the often frustrating process of entering “captchas” in websites easy and profitable. Websites require humans to enter captchas, distorted text, to prevent spam. The Fun Captcha concept uses questions about images that appear on the screen rather than distorted text. One image could be a product, providing a source of advertising revenue.

I-GO Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing, presented by John Brophy, won the third prize of $500. This idea extends the existing I-GO Car Sharing service, allowing people who own cars to share them with those who don’t. After installing I-GO equipment, the car is registered with the I-GO system and made available for reservations either at home or work, whenever the owner wants. The cost of insurance and gas is included, as they are with I-GO’s own fleet, and profits are split between the vehicle owner and I-GO.

Tags: economics, innovation

How To Steal Like An Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me)

I liked Auston Kleon’s idea of newspaper blackout. I really like this post on how ideas evolve. Nothing is original. Yet combinations of existing ideas (mashups in today’s parlance) can produce strikingly original results. This post provides a good description of the process of making that happen.

What you should do with your crappy little service business

I had to read this. As someone who runs a crappy little service business, the title pissed me off. It’s a very good article on why NOT to raise venture funds, why sales is a great form of financing, how to build a service business, and why service businesses can be fun and rewarding.

Why trends are for suckers

“It feels good to be trendy.  You can be sure that you’ll have a lot of company.  And that’s exactly the problem.  It’s easy to go wrong when everybody around you thinks it’s right.” Good post covering some of the dominant models of innovation adoption, with a focus on how not to be taken in by the crowd, no matter how wise it may seem.

Tags: innovation, writing

The Chicago Payments Information Exchange (CPIX) is live on the Built in Chicago. The group’s purpose is to build on Chicago’s history of innovation in payments and create greater visibility for this financial technology market.

In addition to providing a good overview of treasury management and payments in 2010, they are also good examples of my financial writing–the kind of solid content companies can use in bylines articles, white papers, blogs, and like.

Built in Chicago is fast-growing community that serves as a “resource for “digital professionals” working to build great web and mobile businesses and mind blowing user experiences. ” For details, read this interview with founder Matt Moog: http://bit.ly/fWrnlp (links to Crain’s Chicago Business’ Enterprise City blog).

CPIX is moderated by long-time payments, banking, and payments writer and communications consultant Collin Canright. The group is intended to build a network of financial institutions, payments processors, software firms, and consultants will strengthen this niche in Chicago’s technology community through collaborative communication and help propel its future success.

To join Built in Chicago, visit: www.builtinchicago.org

To view CPIX group content, visit www.builtinchicago.org/group/payments

For more information, contact:

Collin Canright
Principal
Canright Communications
www.canrightcommunications.com

773 248-8935 ext. 9404 (office)
773 426-7000 (mobile)

China and India remain high on the financial and banking agenda, with attendees at SWIFT’s Sibos 2010 conference packing the room for a session called “India and China: How Do You Choose?” The rise of China especially, in both currency and trade, played as a theme through Sibos, the annual financial and banking conference held in Amsterdam this October.

Many U.S. and Europeans are not aware of how significant both countries and their rapidly growing economies are, said Gerard Lyons, chief economist and group head of research, Standard Chartered Bank. China is looking to move into emerging markets and plans to do the kind of business development that corporations in the United States and Western Europe generally consider their purview.

That means developing and marketing new products as well as providing inexpensive manufacturing facilities for other companies. As Lyons explained the Chinese expansion imperative, “You can’t rely on selling cheap goods to Westerners up to their eyeballs in debt.”

Chinese banks are planning to expand and were exhibiting with the best of them at Sibos 2010. The Bank of China plans to open a few branches in Europe next year. “We are going global,” said Hong Zhong, Director, strategic development, Bank of China.

For their part, the Indian panelists acknowledged that they and their banks are busy on their home turf, which is difficult for U.S. and European banks to enter. The Central Bank of India now has more than 28 million retail customers across 5,400 branches, with 57% growth in the small and medium business sector last year, said S. Sridhar, the bank’s chairman and managing director.

“In our growth strategy for the bank, the domestic economy plays a huge role,” said Om Prakash Bhatt, chairman of both the Indian Banks’ Association and the State Bank of India, in a Sibos session focused on the regulatory environment. Indian banks will go abroad as their customer do business abroad, and they will need to restructure in order to meet the needs of international corporations.

Session moderator Emmanuel Daniel, CEO and founder of The Asian Banker asked the Indian panelists about another serious issue: the income disparity between the rich and the poor, with little acknowledgement of the problem. “The inability of India to distill its wealth throughout its economy remains a problem,” Daniel said, “and its capacity to address this issue remains to be seen.”

The growth of both emerging and established industrial economies in Asia may depend on it.

Indeed, one Japanese attendee suggested that the so-called “lost decade” in Japan—a reference to low growth, high debt, and deflation after the country’s real estate bubble burst in the 1990s—may become a lost 20 years. He hoped it would not be a beacon of things to come for the United States economy, as Japan’s quality-based manufacturing techniques were in the 1980s.

The Japanese appear to be looking toward increased trade within Asia for growth. “Intra-region­al trade is mainly intermediary goods,” said Shinichi Hayashida, director and deputy head of the interna­tional banking unit at Sumitomo Mit­sui Banking Corporation. Increasing income and consumption within the rising Asian economies would be a welcome change.

Read Going Global, the version of the article posted on ChinaForum.com

For other recent news on China, see:
China’s ‘Quality Not Quantity’ Strategy Yields Results
The Economist: A Special Report on China’s Place in the World

• Over-the-top success of Groupon signals new Chicago tech formation
  “Our investment has created a home for thousands of new jobs and has helped shine a national spotlight on Chicago as a technology leader,” [Chicago Mayor Richard M.] Daley said. “The fast-growing technology field is an essential part of our plan to make Chicago the most competitive destination in the world for new businesses and new jobs.” Chicago on the tech move, from Brad Spirrison’s Chicago Sun-Times column
  (tags: technology society chicago)
• The Facebook Imperative Cannot Be Stopped
  I’m living in the post-PC revolution. I’m in a desktopless world that is about feeds and profiles running in all my browsers and mobile devices, and interacting in exciting new ways. It doesn’t matter if I am in the office, at home, or at Starbucks—I am productive wherever I am. The enterprise is not just going to the cloud, it’s now going social, and it’s going mobile. Facebook and Twitter have shown us the way. Guest post on TechCrunch by Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff.
  (tags: society socialmedia technology)
• Blogging and Mass Psychomanipulation
  Remember this, though. When you’re reading something here that’s getting you really riled up, stop. It may be that you really should be thinking the exact opposite of what you are. And if you find yourself floating through a post agreeing with all the subtle pandering, wake up! Michael Arrington from TechCrunch
  (tags: society media technology)
• Op-Ed Contributor – Google’s Earth – NYTimes.com
  Do we really desire Google to tell us what we should be doing next? I believe that we do, though with some rather complicated qualifiers. Science fiction never imagined Google, but it certainly imagined computers that would advise us what to do. HAL 9000, in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” will forever come to mind . . . William Gibson on Google and Google chief Eric Schmidt’s recent interview.
  (tags: society technology media)

Canright Communications is moving downtown! We’re sharing office space in River North with Lyons Consulting Group, a firm that started in our Ravenswood office. And we’re selling a lot of well loved and vintage office furniture.

If you’re interested in anything and want to see it (or pick it up), email me at collin@collincanright.com or call 773 248-8935 ext. 9404 and leave a message.

Bookcase, Wall-Sized – $575

Large, custom-built oak bookcase for a wall-of-books look. Approx. 8ft wide by 7ft tall. Disassembles into base, top piece, and two shelf units for transport. Currently used as a wall divider in a loft office, with ceiling guy wires. Back side is painted white and has three short shelves installed. That’s optional–the unit can stand against the wall as well.

File Cabinet-Lateral (4 available) – $45

Beige-colored two-drawer lateral file cabinets. We have four available.

File Cabinet-Lateral-Four Drawer – $75

Beige four-drawer lateral filing cabinet.

Antique Desk with Typewriter Return – $125

Antique office desk (painted red) with a spring-loaded typing table. A lot of great articles, marketing materials, and a few books were written here.

Glass Desk and Shelf – $525

Desks–Wooden (three available) – $50 Each

Three wooden desks: Two are maple veneer. One is maple laminate. One has separate rolling drawers. See images. One is 64 in x 32 in; one is 70 in x 34 in; and one is 60 x 27 in.

Conference Table and 8 Knoll Chairs – $400

Wooden Conference table with eight rolling chairs. Table is 10×3.5 ft.: $150. Chairs are black cloth: $30 each.

And while we’re at it, we’re also selling some personal items we no longer want:

Lyon & Healy Troubadour II Lever Harp – $925

This is an older (late 1970s) version of the current model, the Troubadour VI. Harp is in good condition with no broken strings but will need maintenance and tuning. Specifications on a model III are:

Round Dining Room Table/Chairs – $350

Unique round wood veneer table and 4 chairs for dining room or game room. Came from Bavaria, according to the dealer I bought it from, who shops in Prague. Good condition but nicks to the veneer on both table and chairs and some mars on the legs. All chairs are tight, and the table is sturdy. Table is 50.5 inches in diameter and 31 inches tall

Couch-Cabinet-Treadmill-Microwave – $150

Research and articles that have caught my attention this past week.

Atari Computer Concepts

Very cool photos of product concepts c. 1981.

Differentiating Your Company’s IT Services Menu

Thoughtful discussion of  ”trusted relationships” as the differentiating factor in IT services (and other professional) firms, from Ben Bradley of MaconRaine.

SMB Marketers Segment Emails by Preference, Behavior

Email marketing research on trends for small and medium businesses.

Does social media generate leads?

Reasonable and realistic assessments of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for business lead generation.

Social media strategies that work

Report on research from MarketingProfs.

Tags: computers, marketing, social networking

My firm, Canright Communications, uses a monthly email newsletter and a weekly email to stay in contact with our network of clients and prospects. The monthly newsletter is topical, and the weekly email covers the Canright Calendar, a listing of  Chicago networking events.

Read about how it works and get details on our network contact program in “A Comprehensive Network Contact Program,” in the Canright Communications blog.

As you may know from the email newsletters and bulletins you receive from us, we’ve been working on creative ways to keep in touch with our network of customers, prospects, and suppliers through email newsletters and email marketing.

It’s the best way we know to keep a name in front of people, so they remember you when they need your services, know the full range of services you offer, and understand the value you provide.

Tags: Canright Communications, marketing, networking

I go to a lot of events in Chicago and attended more than my share of training programs, conferences, and seminars. In the Canright Calendar, a listing of Chicago networking events, I list those I would (but not necessarily will) attend.

I don’t make recommendations lightly. I highly recommend the MORE Life Training, and I recommend it not only as a way to improve life overall but also as a business skills training.

The MORE Life Training, however, is not specifically promoted as a business training seminar, and on the face of it, it isn’t. The focus on the weekend is on the individual, with an emphasis on discovering what really matters to you; being more truthful and expressive, more honest and genuine; discovering how to use your personal power toward your goals and dreams; and being more engaged with other people–more yourself.

But aren’t these the most critical skills we need as business leaders? It may not be a business seminar, but it sure sounds like good ways of being in business to me. I have used it the skills from MORE Life—and like many business training seminars, it is skills based—to learn how to build rapport for improving sales and project results. I have increasingly told the truth to clients, including things that I know they don’t want to hear, and in some cases I have been able to charge more as a consultant, as opposed to a writer and project manager. I have also become a better leader by seeing the person in the role, by keeping a bigger picture in mind as well as the details.

The weekend is about knowing yourself and how you think and feel, what deeply held beliefs you based your decisions and actions on, and which of those beliefs work and which lead to, shall we say, less than satisfying results in life, love, and career. You also learn tools you can use to change the beliefs and ways of being that you don’t like.

Take a look at the MORE Life registration page, and you see good marketing copy, benefits oriented, on how the training will change your life. All three of the video testimonials on the page are inspiring. I know the people in the videos and how they learned to stand up for themselves, become more expressive, or operate with more integrity.

Seminar leaders Dr. Judith Wright and Dr. Robert Wright focus on skills within a framework of research in neuroscience, a model of human development, and a theory of human growth and change. You can read bits about Dr. Judith Wright’s Theory of Evolating in these blog posts:

• Engagement
• Revelating
• Liberating
• Rematrixing

Learn more about the Institute in the Wright Leadership Institute blogs. And register for MORE Life.

Tags: Leadership, Wright Leadership Institute