Balancing Innovation and Risk in IT
In the financial services industry, data security is on everyone’s minds – particularly those responsible for IT and IS functions. Rightfully so. Yet at the same time, the continuous shift to on...
Let’s talk about what’s happening around us. Let’s analyze topics and gain insight into what motivates and inspires. Let’s use what we learn to create meaningful and powerful experiences. Let’s blog.
Maximizing Your Communications
The turning of the calendar to 2010 presents a great opportunity to evaluate your practice’s communications to determine if they still represent your values and goals. A recent article from Investme...
How You Talk to People Says A Lot
My father cultivated a regard for reputation and first impressions in me from a young age that I’m thankful for. He taught me that how you dress, how you shake someone’s hand and how you t...
A Little Gift From Me to You
Awhile back I created a twitter icon for myself. I wanted it to be a glossy button with my initials in it. I’m far from the first person to do such an icon (Adobe, Mac so on and so forth). Nonet...
Different Sides of Your Persona – Consider Your Audience
At the beginning of ‘09 I was directed to this post by CEO of Zappos on how twitter can make you a better person. This post solidified my personal position on transparency (almost every online u...
Please Update Your Subscription To Our Blog
Hello Salva O’Renick Blog Readers, To make a long story very short, we are making updates to our blog and RSS feeds and we need you to resubscribe. Please note that it may be necessary to unsubs...
The Beauty of Starting Over
Letting go is hard. I don’t think anyone would disagree with that. But letting go is especially hard when it’s something you’re very connected to. Just as I’m sure it’s tough letting a child...
What Page Are We On?
The debate over health care reform is dominating the airwaves. It’s a tough issue that seems to have no clear-cut answer. At its core, health care reform is a classic case of organizational ...
Above the Fold – For Web Design
So I stumbled upon this article about designing above the fold for web design. It’s over two years old, but I felt that the content was compelling (foreshadowing) and wanted to share. It highlights ...
A Focus for the Rest of Your Life
I wish more people would do what my coworker Dave Gilbertson is doing. Dave has taken it upon himself to organize a blood drive. Most of us get busy with our daily lives and forget about the critica...
What wows customers
For some time now, our agency has focused on the critical integration of marketing and sales and helping clients create the ideal selling environment. We’ve developed a methodology that focuse...
Get Away
It’s summer time, and like many folks it’s time to head out for a few days of family vacation. Yet in a pressure-packed world, where every day is a struggle to prove value (especially in...
Flash Player: Why evolve?
The answer is easy—to survive. It blows my mind how many projects are launched with Flash player 6 or 7 as the targeted build. A few years ago, in order to help people improve their website’s awe...
Hey GM, What’s In It For Us?
As GM went into bankruptcy, they launched gmreinvention.com. So what are they talking about? Themselves. Look, potential car buyers are going to ask, “What does this mean for us?” Savvy taxp...
A Bankruptcy of Vision
It’s official, General Motors has declared bankruptcy. In traditional terms, bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability to pay creditors. In General Motor’s case, one ...
Advancing Critical Interaction
Short and sweet blog post today by Seth Godin on the difference between sales and marketing. Reads like this: “Marketing tells a story that spreads. Sales overcomes the natural resistance to s...
Blame me, it’s okay.
We all know that our economy has been going through some tough times. This morning on CNBC, Pennsylvania Congressman Paul Kanjorski described the underlying problem as ‘our tendency to rush to e...
Hatching Smart Social Media: Lessons From a Local Farm
Sure, everyone is talking about social media these days. But one of the best business applications I’ve seen lately came not from some expert on the topic, but instead from a small, local farm in La...
Who uses social media?
Who doesn’t? I’ve been reading a lot lately about the demographics of social media users, with the highlight being that it’s not just for the teeny-boppers or 20-something socialites...
Six Strategies To Keep Your Innovative Fire Power From Fizzling Out
On Friday May 8th, Big Omaha brought entrepreneurs, technologists and creatives together from around the country to celebrate and discuss innovation. Here are six key takeaways from the experts worthy...
Strategy in Uncertain Times
Published in 2001, the book 20/20 Foresight by Hugh Courtney provided a model for strategic decision making in uncertain times. In a recent interview published by McKinsey & Company, Courtney dis...
Is today’s progressive the new streaming?
A big decision in delivering video online is how it’s going to be served to the viewer: via a streaming server or progressively downloaded. Though there is a great deal of debate on the issue, I ten...
What Swine Flu Is Teaching Us About Social Media Strategy
With the emergence of the swine flu threat, the ag/animal health industry has been presented with an unusual situation. Many would argue that the industry has a responsibility to help the public und...
Catching the Cluetrain
This months marks the tenth anniversary of the Cluetrain Manifesto, a series of ninety-five theses that issued a call to action for all businesses operating within what was then an emerging and newly-...
passion+speed
The world loves passion and speed. From hollywood movies, tv shows, computer software, modes of communication and it’s the most effective way of doing business. We know what we love and we want ...
facebook: Connect & Share
I recently attended the Kansas City Chapter of the American Marketing Association’s Annual Meeting featuring speaker Brad Keown of facebook. Brad discussed the newfound strategies behind socia...
Is your data boring and hard to understand?
Data Visualization is the process of communicating information. And, communication generally is strengthened by the amount of sensation channels it can permeate in our everyday lives. So, if your data...
Missouri Town and The Kid in Me
In the day to day grind it’s easy to lose sight of all the great things going on in one’s life. I have all the basic necessities to sustain life. I have food, shelter and money to pay my b...
Everyone’s A-Twitter
Twitter. It’s been around for almost three years, but to most people it came about within the last few months. Really makes me wonder exactly what the “tipping point” was for tha...
An investment with guaranteed returns.
“People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.” - unknown Companies like Zappos don’t get 100 million purchasing customers ...
It Really Is the People
Including ‘people’ in an organization’s mantra is a practice that has been around for ages. ‘We the people’. ‘Power to the people’. ‘People make t...
Be wise.
Am I the only one who wants to get rid of this saying? “during these economic times” It has become so common it can be heard from coffee shop conversation to advertisements for cars and adult diap...
Reinventing
Below I’ve linked to a story by Richard Florida (the guy who wrote “The Rise of the Creative Class”) about how our current economic crisis isn’t going to bring down our country...
Never Underestimate the Power of a Good Marketing Story
I came across this blog post from Seth Godin a few weeks back in which he ponders what came first – the product or the marketing? It made me proud to be in the line of work that I am in. Marketing i...
Time. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
It’s that time of year again. Time for businesses to attempt to win over our hearts with complimentary cookies and the melodic sounds of holiday cheer piping through the loudspeakers. The problem is...
It’s All About the People
We recently decided to support Django, a web development framework built on the language Python. During the decision making process, leading to the support of Django, I stumbled across a great artic...
Uploading your TV commercial to YouTube is not viral genius.
First of all, understand that “viral” is something you earn, not something you create. Somebody has to feel strongly enough about your post to pass it along. Next, understand that it’s not the...
Is your brand delivering information or insight?
Information is delivering facts. Facts about your product or service. Facts about why you’re better than the competition. That’s fine and necessary. But to deliver the next level of value,...
The Upside of Down Times
The ramifications of the global financial crisis are being felt everywhere. It’s no different in the advertising business, where media outlets are worried about their clients ability to make payment...
The Point of Sale is the Most Critical Point of the Brand Experience
MINI Cooper has been pretty innovative in building a brand experience. For starters, they understand how their brand can engage potential buyers with smart and somewhat irreverent thinking (an appro...
Reputation is a Killer App
The financial markets are in disarray. Big institutions are folding, consumers are scared and Congress is promising devastation without action on their part. Sure there’s reason to be concerned. But...
Recent Work
Sentinel Wealth Advisors: Pillars Magazine
Clients of Sentinel Wealth Advisors would call them only when they had very specific needs, but did not fully grasp the scope of all the advantages that working with the firm offered for every facet of their life.
AIDS WALK: 2009 Campaign
After making powerful strides in the community for over two decades, AIDS WALK Kansas City needed a way to raise awareness about the fact that HIV/AIDS was still affecting our population at alarming rates. With advancements in treatment and disease prevention over the past few years, a sense of complacency could easily cause individuals to lose sight of how they could still have an impact.