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Newsweek International: An Eye for Detail

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:28:19 +0000

Why does a watchmaker spend weeks manipulating strands of gold mesh into a single watch chain, when the process could be done simply and more cheaply by machine? Why would a rug producer forego the cost-efficient, machine-aided production used almost universally? In a technological age, what’s the point?

In a word: timelessness.

Despite the ease of high-tech production processes, many of the world’s finest products are still made by hand, mostly by anonymous artisans, using methods often perfected generations ago. From watches to pens to Oriental rugs, many of the world’s classic luxury items are created with time-honored techniques.

Classic Timepieces

“Classic watches are never in high fashion yet they never go out of style,” notes Christopher Murphy, luxury watch buyer for Harrods in London. “They are discreet pieces you can wear with either a smart suit or jeans.”

The wristwatch debuted about 150 years ago, and quickly became indispensable for the style-conscious. While surveying the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace in 1851, Queen Victoria stopped to admire the new Patek Philippe timepieces. Many years later, Albert Einstein — commissioned from the Geneva-based firm a watch with large Roman numerals to accommodate his nearsightedness.

Today, watches by Cartier, Audemars Piguet and others often emulate designs from the 1920s and ’30s, when art deco reigned. The best combine state-of-the-art precision with painstaking craft, with a few containing more than 300 moving parts. Barely altered since the days of Queen Victoria, Patek Philippe’s watchmaking process combines the advantages of modern design by numerous engineers, with the skill and tradition of master craftsmen who hand-polish and finish each tiny component. Years of training and experience enable these experts to hear whether polish has been applied to a rod so small it is invisible to the naked eye — and to position intricate parts such as the spring coil, whose average thickness is four to five times thinner than a human hair.

Exterior decoration is no less precise. The chainsmith uses only his hands and a pair of pliers to weave from scratch an exquisite watch bracelet one owner described as being “fluid as mercury.” For specially commissioned watch faces, world-renowned enameler Suzanne Rohr paints miniatures on a two-inch-diameter gold surface. Her brush contains a single strand. The 100 hues she employs are laid down in tiny dots and fired successively to harden. Because it takes up to 20 firings to harden the enamel, a single-degree variance can ruin her work, which typically requires a minimum of four months per piece, working four to six hours a day.

Patek Philippe makes no more than 20,000 watches each year. Experts liken this to a limited edition, since even the firm’s most popular models number only a few hundred pieces a year. The company tracks which artisans fabricate an individual watch, where it was sold, and often who purchased it. Watches that contain simpler movements, such as the 18-karat gold Patek Philippe Calatrava (the firm’s top-selling men’s strap watch, introduced more than 60 years ago), go for $9-10,000. For watches that have more complicated movements, such as automatic adjustments for leap years or months of 30 or 31 days, prices begin at $43,000. “Classic design appeals to those who’ll not only wear a timepiece for a lifetime but also pass it on to their children,” notes Geneva-based Philippe Stern, president of Patek Philippe. Patek Philippe’s new workshops group all their watchmaking activities under one roof for the first time, providing an ideal way to maximize productivity; visitors can tour this site, which showcases the company’s traditional andcutting-edge technology.

Power of the Pen

The Latin word stylus, meaning “writing instrument,” is also the basis for the English “style.” Evocative without being ostentatious, fountain pens are experiencing a style renaissance. “Communicating has become so impersonal it has magnified the impact of words signed by a fountain pen,” says Zurich-based collector John Hurst, head of Hurst & Freelancers, a translation and communications firm. “When you use a fountain pen, there’s a very real, tactile appreciation of the nib floating on liquid ink.”

One of the most delicate parts of pen making lies in creating nibs. At Parker, the nib of the Duofold Red Jasper is crafted in 18-karat gold with a platinum highlight. Craftsmen undergo several months of training before creating nibs used in actual production. After machine-aided processes strip the flat nib from a solid gold strip and form its curved shape, a welder adds a metal pellet to the nib point. Then a skilled worker slits the nib using a wheel that’s a slender 0.005 inch thick. The entire process takes two weeks.

Lying in State

While the fineness of the wool and number of knots are the usual indicators of quality in a handmade Oriental rug, often overlooked is the incredible skill underlying the rug-making process. “The demise of 20th-century handwoven Oriental carpets bears directly on producers’ and importers’ giving up on the old ways,” says George Jevremovic, Philadelphia-based president of Woven Legends, an internationally recognized producer of handmade Turkish rugs.

The rug-making process starts with shearing nomadic sheep, followed by scouring and hand-combing the raw wool, spinning it into yarn, blending indigenous wools and dyeing them. While virtually all “handmade” carpets these days involve machines at one or another stage of production, some companies do eschew them. Woven Legends, for example, has persuaded many Turkish artisans to return to their ancestral methods.

“Many hours and many hands,” according to Jevremovic, are involved in creating a palette of natural dyes, from plants such as indigo, chamomile and pomegranate. Azeri folk-life rugs, made by tribal and village weavers of Turkey’s eastern Anatolia, cost $70 to $100 per square foot and are considered folk art. “If it were possible to condense into one-person time, making a single 9 foot by 12 foot Azeri carpet would take 14 months,” Jevremovic estimates. The rug owner appreciates the painstaking procedures, he adds. “The discriminating buyer looks beyond trends to the bigger picture. This is timeless art created by many.”

Kerry Wood: Just Like Old Times

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:12:48 +0000

UPDATED: Wood’s 2011 turned out to be a career microcosm — sound enough, until shortened by yet another injury. – SW

Kid K Returns
Reclaiming an icon, the Cubs regain leadership at a critical time.

Adam Dunn: Coming to Chicago

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:14:12 +0000

UPDATED: What more can be said about the train wreck that was Adam Dunn’s 2011? Perhaps this: the man who boasted of having no postseason conditioning regimen is now working out. Expect a different result in ’12. – SW

Adam Dunn Gets On, And That’s the Point
Big bat, bigger personality will fit right in on the South Side

The infectious personality and great, bearlike presence of the 6-foot-6 inch, 285-pounder will play well on the south side of Chicago this summer, where the identity is all about grind-it-out, no-pretense hard work.

A word about 2010: “client”

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:59:48 +0000

The Client will drive the conversation in 2010.
And the message remains critical.

With the continued rise of social media, a sluggish global economy, and a shrinking media landscape clients will soon be taking the “private-label content” route.

Like never before, business influencers will shape trends directly, connecting with audiences across multiple platforms. It’s the Great Content Migration of 2010, where the message bypasses normal means and leaves for good its dependence on traditional media to be heard.

But those who establish the trends are also extremely busy people. Because they lack time to cultivate and capture their fantastic thinking in columns, articles, speeches, and other forms of content, they are going to need help to position themselves and their brands/organizations.

Private label content will be huge in 2010, as organizations begin to add their own, self-published ideas [and venues] to marketing strategies. Whoever can adapt fastest to take advantage of compelling private label content will benefit. This move toward DIY content in organizations will last beyond the current economic moment.

Virtual highball: corporate social networking

Sat, 09 May 2009 04:01:15 +0000

Corporate Social Networking Quickens Connections, Collaboration

“Facebook at work” trend creates efficiencies, new connections

Back in the early 1960s, product managers in skinny ties and shirtsleeves put workers into teams using the cutting-edge technologies of the day: the switchboard gal, the IBM Selectric and the memorandum. Forty years later, the wireless age makes connecting people who work in the same organization far quicker and more efficient, right?

In many ways, today it’s the same old story. Sharing knowledge can often be as unreliable or incompatible as the whitewall tire-sized rolodex of the Brylcreem-ed boss of yesteryear.

Only connect

Putting Alice from Account Services together with Stanley from Creative can be far more difficult now – given that Alice is in the Manila office and has never before heard of Stanley or laid eyes on his Chicago colleagues.

Like the company men (and women) of the Dictaphone era, today’s workers build networks on relationships, trust and word of mouth. Connecting today may be technically easier, but how do we achieve actual collaboration? In the modern multinational corporate environment, what can hasten meaningful input in which we truly connect with those who possess the information and know-how critical to our work?

Enter the corporate social network

Web 2.0 – the rise of user-driven online products or services such as YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia – is evolving to address the needs of the modern workplace. Companies are beginning to build internal social networks, accessible by employees, which let workers share information and collaborate in integrated ways that can enhance collaboration by orders of magnitude.

A 2007 McKinsey survey confirms the corporate world’s widespread interest in bringing to the corporate environment online social networks and other user-driven collaborative tools (peer to peer networks, blogs, podcasting, etc.) In fact, three out of four executives surveyed said they’re now committing resources to collaborative technologies such as P2P networking, social networks and Web services. (Many reported that they should have acted on this sooner.)

Faster Connections

With the enterprise social network, internal working relationships you might not have otherwise been able to cultivate are only a few mouse-clicks away.

And that’s not all. The network also can:

• Broaden word of mouth sources and “kitchen cabinet” expertise. The corporate social network helps users find common sources and contacts so they can approach one another, tap expertise and cut costs (or time).

• Tap specific user(s) and datapoints. Social networks let users track what each is doing. Networking software weighs messages and documents, ranking and evaluating (and protecting) information instrumental to success.

• Identify experts. Need someone who’s fluent in German and also understands aerodynamics? Based on profiles users complete detailing their background and job descriptions the network lets the user gather likely names of those who might work together in the future.

• Blog. Companies using blogs are finding that the sites help link networks of people and even regional offices in “town square”-style ways. Rather than use e-mail or v-mail, they may use blogs to share information about clients or business solutions. Posting to a blog instead of sending a large email thread taps the collective network on their own time, in a more easily digestible format than email or even Powerpoint can.

• Enliven information/bring relevance. Functioning as a single repository of information, corporate Wikipedia sites – which are open for revision and updating by every employee — exist to aid workers in capturing essentials as well as adapting within the organization. User-controlled corporate blogs and wikis will depend, however, on enthusiastic core audiences who’ll move the needle. Managers must learn to identify and cultivate these core contributors.

Sudden Impact

Connecting users who would otherwise perhaps never (or not as quickly) meet elsewhere, Facebook, Myspace and other social networking tools are a success in the consumer space.

No one gets this more than the generation of Twentysomething’s, raised on social networking and now entering the workforce. Thus being able to rapidly define who’s working on what, to share vital information or identify specific expertise, is critical.

For Ogilvy, the WPP Group brand colossus, widespread internal use of social networking has resulted in improved customer development and retention, and increased internal “sharing.”

Ogilvy created an online, real-time knowledge-sharing and collaboration tool accessible from anywhere on Earth. The branding giant uses collaborative workspaces to capture information as it’s created, and “many-to-many” collaboration to share ideas across communities and a social network base integrated into the enterprise.

The result: Ogilvy has increased its customer profitability — by making it easier to sell more services at a lower cost basis — and has measurably increased consumer loyalty, through better/more frequent updating during global campaigns. By demonstrating its nimbleness in client/partner collaboration, the firm also sharpened its competitive edge.

Mobile Strength

The enterprise social network also can build better communications within sales and marketing, a channel that doesn’t always flow properly.

Based on roles and geography, a socially-networked sales force can see specific information and be totally informed before they ever set foot in the client’s lobby.

Imagine a sales rep who’s on the move. She’s in a cab in New York with her boss, who’s asking questions about a specific client contact, Chris Porter, whom they’re en route to visit. Checking her Blackberry, she can instantly tap relevant documents and e-mail threads.

As the cab is still rolling, she’s able to return several vital pieces of helpful information (e.g., Mr. Porter, who has a high-school age son and who loves Tiger Woods, served as a project manager two years previously and has specific experience regarding what she and her boss are pitching) from within the organization’s internal social network.

In a world where marketing is putting things into system, before she goes to that customer she can also uncover valuable data such as whether the client’s just had a support incident, or whether her own firm’s European team is pitching something to this client, or maybe is delivering pricing tomorrow. From all this she and her boss can augment their pitch, or ‘stay in line’ and not say the wrong thing.

Tied to the company’s other great tools, the social network can provide very quick ways of finding information that normally would be lost. Also, the sales pro can, say, instantly locate a white paper to use as a leave-behind.

A worker can post a question via an e-mail alias to a set of experts who can not only rapidly post a response but can also publish a topical FAQ to the internal Wiki on the subject or to the related competitor or database files.

This grassroots approach can be powerful. If you win a client or otherwise have important internal news you can go edit the Wiki. Useful e-mail, press releases and marketing information that would previously sit in people’s hard drives or on some share drive can be pushed via RSS subscription or notifications that speed information to wherever the employee happens to be.

Kicking It, New School

Portals, instant messaging group discussions and tagging: This is not your father’s workplace. In point of fact, it’s more like your young nephew’s.

The old-school method of collaboration — steakhouses and three-martini lunches – is a long time gone.

Instead, in our casual chinos and our pencil skirts, today we’re grabbing our organic fare on the fly. From the checkout line, we’re checking email or texting. As we walk back to the office we’re pinging the company intranet to check out an executive blog or maybe subscribe to a company RSS feed.

From tapping the collective employee talent and knowledge base to creating groups around clients that very likely never would have existed otherwise, user-driven social networks let employees stand at the center of some pretty powerful technology.

It’s secure and private and not only does social networking behind the firewall save time and money in assembling the talent and knowledge necessary for a given endeavor, it has the potential to connect people and ideas such that work quality skyrockets, creativity soars and worker loyalty and involvement with the task or organization become a more enriching experience.

The Hotel Yearbook 2009

Sat, 09 May 2009 02:12:06 +0000

Hotel Yearbook 2009

What should the worldwide hotel industry be expecting during this moment of economic retrenchment? From seizing opportunity in crisis to the war for talent, The Hotel Yearbook 2009 (for which I served as editor) is a forum where the world’s leading industry experts analyze the year to come.

The future according to Trek

Sat, 09 May 2009 02:11:30 +0000

When the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team “turned green,” its website, The Paceline, did also. It was a pleasure to edit and publish this bicycling advocacy presentation, originally a speech presented by Trek president John Burke.

Trek’s John Burke: Advocacy Is the Future

The world keeps spinning and with it obesity is on the rise, traffic congestion keeps getting worse and the number of megacities (population 10 million or more) has exploded.

Trek Bicycle Corporation’s president John Burke believes the bicycle is the solution—if leaders in his industry are willing to shift their focus toward advocacy.

In April [2007], John told industry leaders attending a Taiwan conference that the bike truly can be a solution for these vexing issues, as well as pollution and rising energy costs.

Among John’s major points:

The world is getting fatter. The 1960 average weight of an American child between ages 6 and 11 was 63 pounds; today it’s 74 pounds. Over the same span, both US men and women’s averages have gained the same amount: 24 pounds.
Traffic: This global scourge continues to dump fuel, pollute our skies and cut productivity. In 2003, traffic congestion delayed people world wide for 7 billion hours and wasted 5 billion gallons of fuel.
Urbanization: For the first time in human history, more people are living in cities than in the rural areas, and the rate of urbanization is increasing. In 1950, the world had just 2 “megacities” with populations in excess of 10 million. Today, there are at least 20. There are over 200 cities in China with a population over one million. The United Nations estimates that about 180,000 people are added to the urban population every day. By 2050, an estimated two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas.

The bicycle can contribute – and in places like the Netherlands, London, Boulder, Colo. and Portland, Ore., already is serving — to solving these problems.

Fitness/Health: Calories burned per hour: Bicycling = 500-700; Driving = 5-20.
Environment: Percent share of urban air pollution: The car =60-70; The bicycle = 0
Congestion: Half of all car trips taken are less than 2 miles long; commuting by bike in a major city like London can drop travel time by nearly 50 percent

While a bike-friendly environment exists in the aforementioned markets (and others), the US lags behind much of the world in bicycle commuter percentage.

John Burke views this as his industry greatest opportunity. His message to his peers: It’s our responsibility to promote these important issues – a long-term effort requiring planning and resources. Success-story examples are out there and countless urban programs are already underway in small towns and major megacities.

Creating a bicycle friendly world, John believes, is within everyone’s grasp. But we must all do more.

Vignette: Target controls arsenal

Sat, 09 May 2009 00:43:15 +0000

I helped Vignette produce a series of articles surrounding customer experience management and enterprise social networking. This one covers the intrigue of persona shifting.

ABJ: House of Tutors

Fri, 08 May 2009 18:25:19 +0000

From 1999-2004 I reported on small business for the Austin Business Journal. Among other things.

Building a better bike

Fri, 08 May 2009 05:00:56 +0000

Technology can tilt the playing field, even in a sport most people dismiss as low-tech. One of my personal favorite projects was this corporate feature regarding the role of AMD technology in Trek’s design process.

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