A few weeks back I was a guest on IT on the D. It was a privilege to go into the Gotham-like studios and talk with Dave Phillips and Jeff Mackey about the state of technology companies in Detroit as well as the big agency/client world I’ve found myself. We discussed the challenges and opportunities this world brings.

I was impressed (and invited) by my esteemed colleague Greggory Garrett of CGS Advisors. It was inspiring to see Gregg in action as he discussed his global experience and guided the conversation around what we can do as a region to nurture and foster technology in our area. Much of the conversation focused on the infrastructure and resources of the large automotive industry and how this can help foster growth/talent around technology and potentially off shoot into other businesses and verticals.

There really is something happening in the city of Detroit. The renaissance is just beginning.

I’ve had the unique fortune to experience large agency transitions on both sides- the agency and the client. Also years ago in a former professional life I saw a large manufacturing partner go under. What I experienced followed a pattern and theme.

Transitions are blessings and your reputation is everything. This follows Law #5 of Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power. Guard your reputation with your life.

When you’re working in your affairs pay attention to the slightest comment or foreshadowing about imminent transitions to be less caught off guard. If your ear is to the ground and your heart in tune there should be no surprise and shock. Either it’s Darwinian or our Economic Society, maybe a little of both, but if you have a job and are working you need to realize you’re never entitled to that job and economic forces and bottom lines run the show. This applies if you are in a two person company or a multinational publicly traded entity. As stated in my post Lone Wolf, Family Owned Business, or Corporate Jock to quote The Godfather, “It’s nothing personal, it’s business.” Often people become indignant about the security of the employees and how could these people in high places make “such rash” decisions. Ironically as one moves up in higher places the stakes, tensions and affect on reputations become higher. It’s best to realize transitions are done for a reason and you likely don’t know, or will ever know the reasons. Move on. Waste no energy, especially emotional energy of what you have no control.

When I was at one company and it was announced our business was up for review I received the best piece of business advice very casually and slowly with an eye glance. You need to become ready to make the next move and realize you’ll likely come out better if you’ve been a good employee. Hard working and intelligent people are hard to find. If you’ve stood out transition will likely earn you a higher salary or an elevated title. I’ve seen it happen many times.

But there is shock. And what follows is a pattern I’ve seen.

Shock

This is where grace comes in. A lot of people cry. Some get very angry. Fists pound. There is also desperation. There is also grace.

Some leaders say and do desperate things, like looking for money and investors when their business has crumbled. Even worse some people start shredding documents either to destroy “evidence” or screw the upcoming company.

Other leaders look out for their employees and make sure they can find new employment, write recommendations, and ensure they have the time and resources to find a new job.

When you find yourself in this collective shock it is best to go inward and stay quiet. Don’t add to the drama. Be very careful of what and who you talk to. Guard your reputation. Shock is also the time when people drink… a lot. These are the times when you see ridiculous bar tabs. As I just said, again guard your reputation and you be the judge on whether this is a good time to drink.

Continue to do your job with more attention on delivering than before. This is where heroes are made. In my experience with the manufacturing company going out of business there were unscrupulous desperate people doing dumb things while one guy did his best to service my company and deliver top quality product. I’ll never forget that. He proved himself to be an extremely classy guy.

Humor

After a few days the humor sets in and there’s really a comrarderie of gallows type humor. People skateboard and play football in the hallway.

Focus

The sooner you get to this stage the better. It should be where your head’s at as soon as transition is announced. This is the focus to find a job. You’ll see some still in shock, still drinking, still laughing about the situation but you’ll see these are often the ones who move laterally or just continue their samsara of emotional stress.

You’re better off to get on with your search and examination of options as soon as possible. Realize everyone knows what’s going on and it is ok to go on a job interview or take a discreet phone call. Again, be quiet. Don’t be a jerk or blow your options by putting your options in people’s faces. Once with my entire office I heard a co-worker take a full phone interview in front of everyone in cubicle world. They lost a ton of respect.

When these things happen you have no idea who is going to be working for whom or selling to whom. It is entirely possible your next job you will be working for your subordinate or be selling a service to them. Be careful.

It can be a scary time. It was a rough day when I had to go home and tell my wife my company lost the business. But in the end I came out better as I’ve seen so many. There is an exhiliration and excitement for living on the edge as summed up in this tweet. –

inner peace.serenity. all those years of kung fu flicks,samurai films, & midnight tekken tournaments with my homies in the 90s has paid off.

— hogpath (@hogpath) March 2, 2012

And finally, once the transition is over and you’re in your new job wherever that may be… Company A will be a distant memory within a few weeks.

It appears this blog is becoming a comment on for-profit organizations as vehicles for positive self-actualization and societal change. Here in Detroit we’re continually reminded by the failure of our publicly elected organization in the form of its bankruptcy. While there are large macrocosmic winds of change forces which led to our economic demise there were elected officials at the helm. The bringing to the table of the Detroit Institute of Arts collection as capital collateral has been a source of much debate and symbolism. It’s interesting large foundations backed by large corporate money are coming to this same table to protect these priceless treasures to the community and aspiring young artists. This goes to the core of The Desiderata which hung on my grandfather’s home office back in the day-

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Recently I’ve come across a company which has intrigued me on many levels which, taking from the Zappos playbook, is a prototype of a forward thinking company in the Aquarian age. Warby Parker. They sell glasses and sunglasses online.

My intrigue began with how they astutely targeted me via my Facebook feed. They employed an elegant mix of 1) targeting via interests probably associated with my fashion likes and follows and 2) re-targeting in Facebook news streams after I’d been to the website. Their implementation was textbook – it was just enough to remind and keep me aware without being annoying. Zappos sometimes crosses this line. Seems like I’m always seeing ads for shoes.

The Warby Parker Facebook ads paired with a pixel on their site led to a conversion. For success in business-to-consumer models it’s crucial to employ retargeting and use social channels to identify potential customers. The days of buying blanketed spots are over, one must identify and target the audience. Buy the audience, not the spot. All marketers need to understand the pixel and how it works. Ghostery is a great tool for this and explored in my post Cookies, Ghostery and Online Privacy.

Their product appeased my post-modern vintage aesthetic which they were able to deduce from my interests on Facebook. Google is also not far behind with their KnowledgeGraph and Google+ being a force behind the scenes. The Warby Parker site is also well-designed and incorporates a clean User Experience. Immediately what caught my attention were

• One can try on up to five glasses at a time, they ship, you try on, and then send back. Super convenient.
• The name derives from the merging of characters from Jack Kerouac journals.
• Virtual try-on.
• A brilliant smittering of content. Enough to be technical and making the prospect feel well-informed without being boring. Their design page is a great model and example.

However it’s the page How We Do It which sold me. Taking a page out of the Costco playbook Warby Parker gives you a look behind the curtain how they save costs. This makes the prospect feel they’re “a part of the game” by taking out the middleman. Savings appear to come from a process going straight to the source. And I believe them. I ordered a pair of hight quality sunglasses for $120. I am very happy with them. I think of the $500+ price tag for fashion conscious eyewear. There’s the manufacturer, the distributor, the physician, the lens maker and on and on. Warby Parker’s site in a post-modern and transparent flair gives the consumer behind the scenes access to how they stay in business. Quality appears to not be sacrificed in the stripping down of unnecessary costs.

Finally is the socially conscious organization which is not entirely new or uncommon. Many companies give back to the community or impoverished areas much like a foundation helping out the artwork of the DIA. With a certain degree of seriousness I talk about the new business in this Aquarian age, it is expected to be socially conscious. My wife recently started talking about getting a new prescription and eye glasses and I recommended she check out Warby Parker. When she went online the first thing she said was, “Oh this is cool, for every pair of glasses they sell they give a pair to someone in need.” This was the story that drew her in. Great content.

All the elements have been put together well in Warby Parker’s online presence –

Great content, smart audience based targeting, a very public and post-modern deconstruction of its business model, and a socially conscious message.

Study and learn. Keep the UV out of your eyes.

A few weeks ago I had the good fortune to go on a deluxe Disney World vacation in Orlando, see the four major theme parks and stay at Old Key West Resort. It’s not surprising I had a magical time with great family memories of seeing my 11-year-old daughter soak and absorb it in.

Like most people who work and have “planners” in their family I stayed away from the logistics and anticipation. I didn’t go with preconceived ideas or expectations. I was just glad I was able to see it and experience it with my family. I returned intrigued and inspired in ways not expected.

I need to read this book Designing Disney’s Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance before I get really into this discourse and perhaps will follow-up with a post.

Epoxy Coated Structures

The iconic buildings of Disney World, particularly Magic Kingdom and Epcot, left me feeling inspired and transfixed. Often when we go somewhere designed to replicate or pay homage to some other space it comes off as tacky and cheap. Think any Mexican or Chinese restaurant. The temporal space of Disney World doesn’t replace actual experience but transports the participant into some sort of world citizen consciousness. I was fascinated artificial structures of plastic and fiberglass created an atmosphere of global brotherhood and an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT). I see why Walt Disney World is the benchmark. Cedar Point now seems like a dump.

My father is an architect and spent most of his career in facilities maintenance. Repeatedly throughout the week he’d say, “Epoxy Coated”.

One criticism was lack of focus on recycling in the hotels, bathrooms, and restaurants. A place like Epcot celebrates the environment with one building called “The Land” but I didn’t feel this was the forefront of the overall Disney Experience. Organizing and training the 100s of thousands daily guests in being environmentally conscious is a daunting task. I anticipate Disney will step up in the near future and will likely be game changers in that space.

The People In The Place

Much has been written in business discourses about the Disney business model and the people who make up their workforce. They even have their own school, The Disney Institute, to train other businesses. I was blown away by the attitude and efficiency of the Disney people from the bus driver that greets you at the airport, the bellman at the resort, the Haunted Mansion greeter, and even the smiles from the cleaning crew and grounds keepers. Once is a nice anomaly which can restore your faith in humanity. A noticeable and consistent vibe tells and teaches one that We (and I) are capable of greatness. Throughout the week I noticed the cordialness and attentiveness of the staff transcended to the guests and participants “on the stage.” Sure, there was an occasional rude person in a gift shop, but it was outside the norm considering the volume of people there. People seemed to get along all over and the world did seem to be a better place that week I was there.

In The Beginning A Structured Tribe

I have been fortunate to take some of the Disney Institute’s training. Experiencing the product firsthand was invaluable and made me ponder further the role and possibilities of large organizations. In a previous post titled Lone Wolf, Family Owned Business, or Corporate Jock I discussed my epiphany of large corporations striving for greatness for the company and the individual. In some ways the evolution of my identity has been from an idealistic poet to a digital marketer/storyteller in a large organization. Years ago I had a common college aged healthy skepticism and even cynicism to multi-national corporations. However, having worked for large organizations the past three years I’ve seen how they’ve helped me evolve as an individual and provide opportunity for me and my family. Despite inherent politics and questioning direction nothing has rubbed me the wrong way ethically.

At places like Epcot and Disney Institute training there is something possibly much richer and deeper than the bottom line and making a profit. With work comes reward. It is how the work is structured that matters and the root of an organization’s sustainability. Teaching, setting expectations, and relentlessly focusing on culture from the beginning is what Disney has seemed to master for its employees. It has created a culture and arguably an expectation of its customers to be a part of that experience.

There is a vast discourse and much to study when it comes to corporate structure, political economies, and global sustainability but I do think we can learn from an organization and experience like EPCOT. People are attracted to groups and seek structure, repetition, and respect. Of course this is a generalization, there are lone wolves and those against the grains, but we live in a universe where we need one another for survival. EPCOT celebrates these groups as nations and does it in a somewhat respectful and non-tacky way. The consumerism associated with it, the fact Disney is a for-profit company, did not come across as aggressive or intrusive in that environment. I understood it’s what needs to be done in order to make that experience for me and my family come alive.

It’s a cliché now to talk about the great Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times“. (Wikipedia showing not actually Chinese). These are interesting times when it comes to globalization, technology, and the concept of company. Small idealized entrepreneurial companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter have skyrocketed into behemoth corporations with billions in revenue in a decade. For some this is utterly frightening with dystopian and Orwellian undertones. And for others, maybe an idealized poet, it has the consciousness to celebrate diversity, the magic of family, and make the world a better place by the way we treat one another. It is after all… a small world.