An airplane is nothing more than a formation of aluminum compromises

I flew a Seeker Seabird recently in New Mexico. It is an example of an airplane that is built and certified to fulfill a simple mission and it does just that. The Seabird is a plane with few compromises to the design objective. It is built for going slow, looking around and doing it all remarkably inexpensively. It is 3 for 3 towards those objectives. It sort of begs the question why can’t more aircraft (products) do this?

The Pilatus PC12 comes to mind as another aircraft that meets its design objectives. It hauls people and stuff as if you are packing a Chevy Suburban, does it as fast as turboprops with two engines and is measurably more comfortable inside than other single engine turboprops. Ok, there are two airplanes that fulfill their Marketing Requirements Document. Are there others?

The Oportunity of a Lifetime Comes Around About Every Two Weeks

My dad had a bunch of sayings that drove me crazy when I was a kid, but similar to Mark Twain, I am amazed at how smart he was as I look around 30 plus years later. One of his country, Texas folk sayings was: “the opportunity of a lifetime comes around about every two weeks.” I have drawn many things from this pithy comment over the years but I am now convinced it is about balance. Not that you shouldn’t keep swinging, to misuse a baseball metaphor. Balance in this case is defined as weighing the pursuit of core business basics against risk.

Venture capitalists, angel investors and entrepreneurs today must follow or pursue their convictions with a zeal like never before. Pursuing a “hunch” or “your gut” is the riskier way of finding opportunities but only the basics of any company make up a business’ DNA; LIQUIDITY, PROFITABILITY & GROWTH should be the primary pursuits today balanced against those riskier opportunities. If your pursuits cannot predictably deliver at least one of these three things in an acceptable way (positively), then consider why you are doing them.

The Best Product Usually Wins

Recently, an Albuquerque, New Mexico 17 year old student athlete declared he was leaving the state and its two major universities to seek a college life (and play football) in Texas. Local media including the fishwraps and sports talk radio seem to find this a deplorable act. What utter nonsense. If great products do indeed win, then this young man who was pursued and wooed because of how he plays football must have chosen the best product for himself. That is not bashing UNM or NMSU. It is simply recognizing that he had choices and he chose what he wanted, based on a multitude of check boxes I suspect.

I think this may be an old Dilbert line: “Most people can’t tell the difference between fine Asian silk and Bounty paper towels. They either can’t tell the difference or do not have access to the alternatives. The job of marketing is to find these groups of people, stick a vacuum pump in their pockets and suck until all you get is lint.” Today’s internet driven, instant news world gives much greater access to alternatives and actually can educate a consumer (or student) past the emotional seduction marketers strive to obtain.

And as to this local story, young people today have zero responsibility to attend a university simply because it is local. The university athletic departments do have a responsibility to create the best athletic programs (products) they can. And BTW, Paul Krebbs is doing just that at UNM.