Author Archives: Peter Doyle
The statistics are stark according to Forbes magazine the US is losing 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month, over 42,000 factories have closed down since 1999 and some 44 million Americans rely on food stamps. I have driven through towns like Dayton Ohio, block after block of boarded up buildings, ghost towns where once there were families and businesses. The panacea for this we are told will be found in new industries, like healthcare, or in the information and services industries. Maybe, but as I discovered recently, there is a need for products in the Old Economy, and there is a need for innovation. About two months ago, I traveled out to the Naval Base at Patuxent River, Maryland to produce some marketing materials for a new solvent. That may not sound exciting, but the industrial solvent market is worth 5 billion dollars. This new product called “Navsolve” is a “Green … Continue reading
If there was one slogan that dominated the aughts it was the Nike’s “Just Do It”. I am not a fan of sweeping generalizations, a one size fits all solution. Many have ended up broke and broken by not planning, or thinking through the pros and cons of a risky venture. That said there are benefits gained by “doing it” that can apply to innovating in our own careers. Here’s my story… In the process of any pursuit there are valuable lessons and unexpected detours. Some years back while working in LA I decided I wanted to leave the music business, at the time I was a music director of a small station. Faced with not knowing what to do next, I decided to reach out to help some friends promote a Jazz documentary they had completed and wanted to get aired. I talked them into doing a “premiere” … Continue reading
Innovation is a global phenomenon, I have witnessed this on a daily basis for the past five years. My company MMC has a site http://www.urweb.tv that uses rich media to market promising technologies from Federal Laboratories, Universities and Emerging Companies. We also have metrics so we know who comes and what they watch. They come from all four corners of the globe. How they find out is something of a mystery, we do target and viral marketing, blogs, social media, but that doesn’t account for the sheer variety of visitors. We get scientists, universities , companies, venture groups and government agencies, including the CIA. For a while I began to believe the site was required viewing in China, day and night we would get visitors from the China Science and Technology Network, ChinaNet Shanghai Province Network, Beijing Blue I.T Technologies Co.Ltd., and the ubiquitous ChinaNet Guangdong Province Network. In some … Continue reading
It is a scene I have watch scores of times over two decades. Arriving at a location setting up, small talk with the interviewee, lights, action, the camera rolls, and my subject seems incapable of answering a simple question in less than five minutes. Maybe it is because they have spent a lifetime acquiring knowledge and insights about what they do, and this is their chance to tell posterity, tell it all in exquisitely boring detail. Whatever the reason, whatever the person, be they a CEO, scientist, academic or the janitor they have to be given a reality check. Nobody is going to remember any of it, they will be confused and zone out. The ability to separate and state a few simple statements is key in getting people interested in what you do. When people ask me what I do, my answer is “I produce media marketing materials that … Continue reading
Finding customers interested in a new innovation or a promising idea is a challenge that can set a business on the path to success or failure and it can be very expensive. Traditionally, a company with a promising product trying to break into a market would attend conventions in the hope of meeting prospective buyers. After attending scores of conventions in many market spaces, I can tell you it can be one of the biggest wastes of money and time unless a bit of serious pre-planning has been done. Most of the business done at conventions was started well in advance, the meeting during the event a mere finale. How do get the ball rolling without spending hours cold calling in the hope someone will return your call. One answer is to find nodes of interest, groups where the product being offered is likely to find interest. An association is … Continue reading
Back in 1980s I lived in Santa Monica, California and surfed California’s hotspots. I learned to ride a board as well as my first lesson in innovation. At that time surfers used white zinc oxide on their noses and lips to prevent getting serious burns. The problem with zinc oxide was that it was hard to wipe off, so you would walk around all day with a patina of white on your nose and lips. Somehow, it always managed to get on your clothes and it was hell to remove. So a small group of surfers found a chemist and paid him to make up a clear, easy to remove sunblock. He came up with a gel formulation and the guys decided to call it “Bullfrog”. These surfers were also entrepreneurial, they formed a company with the original name of Ocean Laboratories. Surfers are a community, they have their own … Continue reading
