StevenClarke

The 6 killer apps of prosperity – Niall Ferguson

stevenajclarke — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:04:30 +0000

The world is ever changing and the pace of that change seems to increase exponentially (coincidentally the same way technology advances) and many of the older generations wish things were the way they were before.

There is also a large portion of the Western world that looks to the East where a simpler life was even until recently the way to go, but simpler mean more basic.

Whilst Ghandi gave a tremendous amount to the world with his vision of unison and peace amongst humanity, there will be very few who would covet the oversimplified or poor lifestyle he chose.

In Niall Ferguson’s TED talk he notes the reasons why the West succeeded from 1500 onwards and why the East, Africa and South America can and will continue to increase the wealth of the individual having learned how to do it from the West, to very soon pass even the top producing Western nations.

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
The 6 Killer Apps of Prosperity – Niall Ferguson

Smile

stevenajclarke — Fri, 27 May 2011 12:47:28 +0000

I have always been known as a smiler – someone who is predominantly smiling – and I have always appreciated that smiling (and laughing), make a huge difference to my own state of mind and health. More than that, I often go out of my way to get a smile out of people who are of fixed, blank or miserable expressions.

Smiles transform any situation. They are by their nature full of warmth, love and joy. They help us cross boundaries that language often can’t and, like a hug, they can make all the difference in the world.

As it turns out they offer even more than I thought as I found out when I watched a video on TED that re-affirms my own beliefs about how important a smile is.

Wow Your iPad Readers (via WordPress.com News)

stevenajclarke — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:36:30 +0000

Great news for the handy soon to be indispensable iPad user and blogger alike

With the launch of Apple's iPad we have seen the future of computing and it is touch. Nothing matches the visceral feel of navigating your digital world with your hands. The past four months we've been working closely with Onswipe to bring your iPad visitors our vision of what a blog can look like re-imagined for a touch experience. Our iPad-optimized view is app-like in its functionality, but pure HTML5 goodness on the backend: it supports touch … Read More

via WordPress.com News

V.I.P.

stevenajclarke — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:45:57 +0000

Virtually Immediate Progress

Guiding, Inspiring, Motivating & Supporting

Whether you are looking for a worldly, well-rounded personal mentor or guide, or simply someone to bounce ideas off and help organise your thoughts, so you can move towards making your life your ideal, I am here to help.

Where possible, face to face meetings are best, as it makes it easier to establish rapport and to strengthen the connection, however this is not a necessity if it is not convenient.

As much of my time with clients is spent on the phone and as sometimes people want to talk things through quickly, you can access me faster by making an advance payment of £80 via the secure PayPal button below and gain access to me by phone and email for a month* and if you wish to continue receiving my services, simply pay again by Paypal on the 1st of the next month.

If you wish to arrange a suitable time for a 0ne-to-one session, please email me or call me. I am also available via Skype.

Should you wish to utilise my services on an ongoing basis, I am happy to discuss short and long-term arrangements to fit your requirements.

Do You Have Work/Life Balance?

stevenajclarke — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 14:26:53 +0000

Work life balance is something that has been a growing topic of concern and debate since the ’60′s.

For the vast majority of people who have more to their lives than work, such as family and a social life, as well as for those who aspire to make those part of their lives, balance in life is the Holy Grail.

Nigel Marsh’s excellent TED video below gives us a well considered and humorous view of the struggle to achieve balance and how we might just achieve it.

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

Need Energy? Focus? Get A Performance Lifestyle.

stevenajclarke — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:51:24 +0000

If you ever feel you don’t have the energy to keep up with your life or that you are living with constant overload, but still want to get more from your life and so take on even more, then you need to take a few minutes to understand Performance Lifestyle.

My long-term friend John Allen Mollenhauer, who has been involved with the health and fitness industry for over two decades, has developed this program precisely because the vast majority of people have got it back to front. Athletes on the other hand understand and put into practice, exactly what is needed to achieve their key goals.

Watch this video from John to get some background:

John is a highly experienced businessman and entrepreneur as well as having a deep understanding and practice in and of performance lifestyle; there’s no-one better to help you achieve yours.

Now you can engage directly with John Allen Mollenhauer and other Performance Lifestyle experts to infuse your life with vibrant health and balance, while achieving even your most ambitious goals, just click on the logo below to take you though to The Lifestyle Coaching Center for loads of resources to help you reach your goals.

Apple+Teenagers+Cost=Blackberry Growth

stevenajclarke — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 13:11:21 +0000

You might think that the competition can’t help you grow, they take market share from you or at least fight you for it.
But Apple, simply by following their company edit to be the best in their field and provide the highet quality products, also hit a price point that excludes the vast majority.

Picture a teenager driven by the desire for a smart phone, but even more by the need to be in constant communication with his or her friends for free or at least very little.

Blackberry is a business tool I may hear you shout, especially those of you over 40. But guess what, if you haven’t got a teenager of your own and therefore haven’t had the iPhone v Blackberry (Android? what’s that? Isn’t that, like, a robot with human tendancies? Nokia?! Do they even make a smart phone?), then you’re in for a surprise.

Teenagers primary concern for their smart phone was that it was cheap to communicate with their friends ALL the time.
Being smarter than they are given credit for, they quickly determined that the cheapest internet flat rate deal on a Blackberry subscription was so much better value than a sexy but costly iPhone. Android wasn’t even on the scene and so didn’t get a look in.
The power of word of mouth and desire to be part of the crowd has driven many teenagers in many countries to adopt Blackberry. Indeed, even where teenagers wealthy enough to have an iPhone initially, they have often moved to Blackberry simply to join their friends on the proprietary Blackberry Connect rather than risk being excluded or disconnected from their social network.

It doesn’t matter that Facebook and Twitter work on other platforms. Through no design and no fault, Blackberry has won the teenage market because what they thought was a sensibly priced business tool was exactly the social connection/extension tool teenagers wanted and could afford.

Well done Blackberry. Personally I love my iPhone.

*Photograph is provided by and copyright of Christine Estima

Need People’s Attention? Try Something Different…

stevenajclarke — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:07:34 +0000

In an era when getting people’s attention can be a difficult thing, sometimes it just pays to go all out and try something completely new.

Thomson (TUI) got it spot on with a new spin on old, but critical information:

This is how to get people to both pay attention and get your message over in a fun way.

Bringing customer service home

stevenajclarke — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:30:03 +0000

This eventually arrived on my desk today, having travelled far and wide across the internet. Most recipients had made some sort of comment and I noted that all were in favour of giving it a try. Simple stuff, it won’t cost us anything other than the few minutes it takes to forward, but it would be brilliant if we could achieve positive results for at least some of the poor job hunters out there.

“Subject: Insourcing jobs for the UK

Worth a try?

I want to ask each of you to consider doing the following when you
are talking on the phone to any customer service representative
that is based in a foreign country (like India , the Philippines or Mexico).

I have done this twice and it works! Any time you call a number
(for a credit card, banking, charter communications, health insurance,
insurance, you name it) and you are transferred to a representative
(from a foreign country), please consider doing the following:

After you connect and you realize that the customer service
representative is in a foreign country (you can always ask if you are
not sure about the accent), please very politely (very politely – this
is not about trashing other cultures) say, “I’d like to speak to a
customer service representative in the United Kingdom”.  The rep
might suggest talking to his/her manager, but, again, politely say,
“Thank you, but I’d like to speak to a customer service representative
in the UK”.  YOU WILL BE IMMEDIATELY CONNECTED to a rep in the UK.
It takes less than one minute to have your call re-directed to
the UK. Tonight when I was redirected to a UK rep, I asked again to
make sure – and yes, she was from Bristol.

Imagine, if tomorrow every British citizen who has to make such a call
requested a UK rep, how that would ultimately impact on the number of UK
jobs that would need to be created ASAP. Imagine what would happen if
every UK citizen insisted on talking to only UK phone reps from this day on.

If I tell 10 people to consider this and you tell 10 people to consider
doing this – see what I mean . . . it becomes an exercise in viral
marketing 101.

Remember – the goal here is to restore jobs back here at home – not to be
abrupt or rude to a foreign phone rep.  If you agree, please tell 10 people
you know and tell them to tell 10 people they know . . . . etc . . . etc . . .”

If we don’t try we’ll never know – so I’m going to take this approach

from now on. Let’s see if some simple pro-activity on our part can bring

some much needed employment back to the UK. If we can’t help our fellow

countrymen who will? Businesses only respond to client demand when it’s a cost to them.

Who knows; if this works we could move to local manufacture again too and bring back much needed skills.

Are you living on another planet?

stevenajclarke — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:41:14 +0000

I feel a little perspective and context is called for in these times of social media, customer engagement and all the excitement about the transition the few privileged (yes I mean few), are currently utilising, learning and sharing.

For my sons generation (20 & 18), online and offline aren’t distinctions…it’s all just part of communication and is as natural to them as word of mouth was (and currently is in Egypt), before the technology we in the advantaged world have enjoyed in the last 100 years or so since technology has made more possible in less time. Some of my peer group and many of my parents peer group rail against these advances – the always available / connected society in which we now find ourselves. They are of course wrong. Just don’t engage if you don’t feel like it or switch your technology off. Your choice; job done.

Having hopefully made my position clear, that I love the technology we have and that in my view, it’s going to get a lot more connected than we are currently with technology most people would be too frightened to consider or just pour scorn on at this point, I’d like to bring us back to my title – are you living on another planet? The answer is yes. If you are reading this on your desktop, laptop, netbook or mobile device, it’s a definite yes. Why? Because we really are the privileged few. Ok, so the privileged few might run into hundreds of millions, but for a planet approaching seven billion in population, the number of facebookers and tweeters is still less than one fourteenth of global population.

We are privileged because we are fortunate enough to get to play with the latest and greatest ‘toys’ that technology companies devise and produce for our experience, engagement, enjoyment, entertainment & effectiveness, but as with any new wave that comes along, there is a frenzy to be everything to everyone; yesterday.

It’s ok; you’ll still be you and no less worthy if your personal branding campaign hasn’t been devised, yet alone implemented yet. Just be yourself whatever your chosen forms of communication are because it’s not about anything other than what value you are delivering – as it always has been – it’s just the platforms are increasing in numbers and diversity as are the routes to market.

With that in mind do spare a thought from time to time for the five billion plus people who aren’t yet anywhere close to understanding our playground, let alone the games we’re playing in it. The vast majority are always playing catch-up and in real terms live on a different planet.

Some facts and figures to peruse and digest:

Amazing numbers yes, but then look at penetration of the various markets:

And the oldie but goodie – If The World Were Reduced To 100 People:

50 would be female

50 would be male

20 would be children

There would be 80 adults,

14 of whom would be 65 and older

There would be:

61 Asians

12 Europeans

13 Africans

14 people from the Western Hemisphere

There would be:

31 Christians

21 Muslims

14 Hindus

6 Buddhists

12 people who practice other religions

16 people who would not be aligned with a religion

17 would speak a Chinese dialect

8 would speak Hindustani

8 would speak English

7 would speak Spanish

4 would speak Arabic

4 would speak Russian

52 would speak other languages

82 would be able to read and write; 18 would not

1 would have a college education

1 would own a computer

75 people would have some supply of food and a place to

shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 25 would not

1 would be dying of starvation

17 would be undernourished

15 would be overweight

83 would have access to safe drinking water

17 people would have no clean, safe water to drink

Sources: Fritz Erickson, University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and John A. Vonk, University of Northern Colorado, 2006; Returning Peace Corps Volunteers of Madison Wisconsin, Unheard Voices: Celebrating Cultures from the Developing World, 1992; Donella H. Meadows, The Global Citizen, May 31, 1990.

So let’s all keep up-to-date and involved, but let’s also remember, just as the Egyptians have had to in the last week, face to face speaking is the default for us all and it’s what really unites everyone on the planet.