Notes on The Apprentice Season 1

The Apprentice

感谢 Carrie 介绍 Donald Trump 的这个系列真人秀，2004年开始已经有十季。

从几20来人中分组，通过 real life business challenges 来淘汰 candidate，筛选出优秀的 leader。从紧张、感动、欢乐、撕逼中，学习很多。即便是真人秀有表演成分，我还是可以看到值得反思自己的点、和对商业常态的新认识。很精彩。

一开始挑了第六季（07年）看完，游戏规则很有意思，充分体会了穷人和富人的体验。迫不及待挑了第一季（04年）看，按照男女分队，优秀程度和颜值程度都很高，尽管是20年前的片子了，每集都让我有所笔记。

现在在慢慢看第三季（05年），看多了的确有点疲倦，因为经验和学习 margin 降低，更多的就是为了放松。不过这季是 street smart 和 book smart 的对比，也许会对我又有一些 enlightment 吧！

当然还有一个 side thought 是，老美那么多年前就拍了这么精彩的真人秀，反观我们的真人秀。哎！希望可以推动一个类似系列的产生。

资源在 b站 有。

Season 1

本季喜欢的人：

• Bill 在关键时刻能当机立断，无私心只为把事情做好，尽职尽责，不沾惹纷争，待人接物得体大方，不拖后腿不内耗
• Troy 小棉袄，特别暖心，非常让人亲近不设防，很乐观并传递给所有人，不拖后腿不内耗
• Amie 温暖的姑娘，和 Bill 差不多，但缺少一点点 push 和 smart，容易让人亲近（有一点点缺乏对 progress 的 push，遇到问题有点 lay back 而不是更积极把问题解决）

 

S1E1: Selling lemonade

Step up!

• Overall, 胜在每杯的“溢价”高，然而用了 sex-sell
• As a leader，就要展现出 leadership，不要扭扭捏捏的

location location location!

• About decision: 卖柠檬水这种 retail 性质、alternative 多、单价低、需求普遍的产品，就要在客流量大的地方
• Other: 女性的sex-sell还是蛮有争议的

 

S1E2: TV and magazine ad for private jet card

Swing for the fences, and failure is not an option.

Don’t deal with underlyings. Deal with the boss whenever possible.

• Overall, 胜在大胆和完整的 marketing pitch，还有一个好的 presentation
• As a leader
  • 不要完全独断，当 teammate 都质疑、沉默的时候，冷静一下，倾听“沉默”
  • 平复队员的心情，不管这个人是否讨人喜欢，he’s on the team
• As a member
  • be a cheerleader, do not repeat “no no no no no”
  • 让 project 失败的人才要被 fire，不是让人看不爽的人
  • Troy 和客户充分沟通，哪怕没有结果，也不留遗憾
• Other
  • 女女吵起来，保持风度，不要发飙，不要咄咄逼人
  • CA 季都是关于 marketing & sales，这两个方面的人负很大责任，NY 季没有那么凸显，所以 PM 责任更大。也许这是分工不明确的问题？

 

S1E3: negotiate and buy a list of stuff at lowest price

• Overall, 胜在速度和 price negotiation
• Amie 这段真的很赞，了解产品为什么这个定价，然后从成本价去谈（速度方面，真的是 no time for too much planning and retracting, just go go go)

• As a leader, earn and demand the respect
• As a member
  • 黑妹可能不太让人喜欢，但是在商言商，做该做的就好了，not personal，do not be a child
  • Bill 很认真很拼命，后来做了 leader 也是很拼，不撕逼，一心为项目，不对人

 

S1E4: Planet Hollywood retail and restaurant

• Overall, 胜在抓住高定价高频次消费的酒，acquisition不够多的情况下，conversion 就变得关键了（然而还是用了 sex-sell）
• As a member
  • Bill 当机立断，在形势不好的时候立刻决定立刻指定任务，哪怕他不是 pm
  • Nic 的问题在于，whenever something doesn’t go his way 他就不玩了（额……）

 

S1E5: flea market

• Overall, 胜在好的团队氛围和协作，没有冲突矛盾，一起做最好的决定，一起坚持下去，哪怕天气不好也不怕，都卖完啦
• Boardroom 厉害了，出现了一个腹黑萌妹害了 Kristie，而 K 根本没有 stand up for herself，正好另外两个人都不话多。她的 silent 策略就没用了

S1E6: auction for celebrities

• Overall, 胜在和 celebrity 的交流和需求挖掘的 idea match+luck
• As a member
  • Troy! 在给一个冷冰冰的歌手 propose auction idea 遭拒绝后，Troy 很轻松地（用他被 laugh 的 accen）提了个金点子被采纳了，心态和气氛真好，不怕被拒绝，而且不像谈判，不冷冰冰，不 business，很亲近。截图的 designer 也是，他的 idea 也不错，说话的口音也一下子打破了僵局
  • 黑女人差点被 fire 了，因为 rude 得目中无人了，哪怕她能力很强，领导力被认可了。但 Jessie take crap from her，怒其不争。相比于强势，更要不得的是示弱。不要因为对方的反对、异议，就示弱放过对方，该说该做的还是要说要做
• Other
  • 黑女人没有被 fire，但她居然 enjoy 进门时看到大家震惊的脸，哈哈哈，心态真好！
  • Tammie 居然搞不清楚情况，对着 host 说要别的名人一起参加，而且还咬着这个 idea 不放，很拎不清啊

S1E7: renovate and rent

• Overall, 胜在 luck。3天租掉公寓很靠 source 的，我觉得2队做得都不太好，应该在 sourcing 上多花力气。当然有个亮点是请了包租公司待办装修，省力效果也不错，但是可惜溢价没有 cover 花费。成本还是要省着点啊！
• As a member, Tammy 在对手面前说自己队被骗了。虽然是“公正客观”地质疑自己队伍的问题，但是却很影响士气。而且只会提出问题，却没有帮助解决，再客观、再有道理也没有用啊，让团队涣散的因素，所有人都会讨厌的

S1E8: bottled water

Screw me once, shame on you. Screw me twice, shame on me. – Bill

Business is about numbers.

• 做生意就是做生意，不是因为你 cute，要谈就好好谈

 

S1E9: sell art

• Overall, 赢在对产品的认可和与顾客的亲和力
• 如果对产品没感觉的话，就不要为了钱而做事！

 

S1E10: 纽约三轮车

• Overall, 胜在 idea！一队想出 punchcard，一开始觉得很赞。后来另一队想出ads，简直太赞了好吗。punchcard 需要投入，而且只是预收而已， ads 是几乎没有投入的收益。 而且三轮车做 ads 是一个非常顺理成章的事。不从生意本身入手，而是从新的附加值入手，赞。两个都是2b 的，但是 punchcard 是“东西”，ads 是广告，一个是采购很抠门呀，一个是市场就是花钱的呀，而且相对来说，谁都更需要 ads 而不是更多一个产品。hmm，pubchcard 还是卖给了 end user 才有效哈，因为 tourism 很重
• As a member
  • Amy 提了 ads 的 idea，找公司谈也很积极，身体力行拉车也很积极，赞
  • 想到一个主意了还不够，如果做到一半发现形势不对的话，要多一点尝试呀
  • don’t waste time

 

Key takeaway

1. Step up for yourself. 强势好于示弱，争取自己赢得的利益
2. 为做成事而努力，不要去内耗，不要搞事情。如果团队有，要助力去解决，袖手旁观也是内耗
3. 亲和力、谈判能力很重要
4. 对每个项目的关键要分析对，是 sourcing？conversion？idea/product 本身？negotiation skills？time control？锁定 high price？
5. 创意偶尔也很重要，而且会是决定成败的创意，直达生意根本，但其实不多，更重要的还是执行力

想啊想啊想名字：Naming your company, product or service

 

This is a report I wrote back in 2011 for a class I was taking in University of Michigan. Recently I have been looking for ideas and thoughts on the name of a project I am working on, and came across this report. I think it’s a good read for inspiration. I myself learned a lot from the last part “naming process”. So, enjoy 

Ad：有没有谁认识给产品起名字有经验的人naming professionals？拜托refer下。谢谢扩散！

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Title: Naming Your Company, Product or Service

Speaker: Scott Hauman, Lingo Definition + Design

Hosted by: Ann Arbor SPARK

Date and time: Oct. 11, 2011 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

 

As a featured member of Ann Arbor Spark’s Marketing Roundtable, Scott Hauman shared his insights on how to name a company, product or service so as to improve branding.

The talk began with recalling of memorable brand names, such as Viagra, Chobani, Fandango, Triscuit, Blackberry and Joust. Digging into the success of these names, Scott defined a win brand name as the integration of four elements.

The first is great quality and performance of the service or product. A name can never be remembered without winning people’s appraisal of the product behind it. Good quality is not only the basis but also the catalyst. The better the product is, the farther the name will be spread.

The second is a deep well of association which evokes people’s thoughts and emotions, rather than pure, dull definition of a word. A good brand name has the power to stay in people’s mind, making them think out of the box and encouraging their imagination. Fandango, as a good example, is originally a word for a traditional Spanish dance, while actually is a brand name for a service for people to find popular movies, showtimes, reviews, trailers, etc. Now the prefix “fan” means a lot to the service since it implies an audience of fans, which helps promote the spread of the service because people can easily connect the name to the service. A good name makes people think.

Good quality and inspiring meaning are not enough for a brand name to spread quickly. One more essential element isintriguing phonetics. Take it this way, a new brand name to a person is like a new word to a child. The ones with smooth syllables, proper stress, and interesting pronunciation stay long on people’s lips. Triscuit is a good example for this, and it’s even easier to remember since the pronunciation is similar to biscuit.

The last element is market differentiation. Looking at the diverse world, one can easily find a similar product as the one you are trying to name. In order to be stand out and be remembered, a name should differentiate itself with others. For example, before Amazon got its name, there were similar services whose names are books, ebook, onlinebooks, etc. They shared the sameness of being restricted to the functionality of the service. It could even be so confusing that the user could not remember well which one s/he was looking for. While Amazon didn’t buy it at all, and amazingly gathered attention and won over other services.

After decomposing a successful brand name, Scott carried on with his process of naming. The naming itself should be a distinct project.

In the project kickoff, only related people including naming professionals, decision makers, and product managers should get involved, and more importantly, continue being involved throughout the whole process to ensure opinions from all directions and meanwhile to reduce inconsensus. The next step is to hold a naming workshop where participants exercise their visioning and discuss product personalities. Then a competitive audit is necessary to set a proper positioning and ensure market differentiation by collecting similar services’ names. It’s still not time to start brainstorming. A rigid developing platform and criteria document must be created and agreed upon by all participants. It is smart to include a rule that no head shaking, frowning, or objection is allowed during the process of brainstorming.

Now it’s time for ideation and generation. Strictly following the criteria document, participants share candidate names, which might be come up with during the meeting, or during the naming workshop, or even before. Then all the names are crudely filtered and distilled. The next step is very important but often overlooked: trademark screening and linguistic check. Sad stories happen when getting a lawsuit from another company with the same name or when finding out terrible meaning of the word in other languages after the determining the perfect name through a copious process. After making sure the names are okay to use, they are scored using a weighting system involving all participants, which results to a final list. At this stage, an audience research can be carried out to see the responses and feedback. The final step is the brand extension that brings focus to the development of the final brand name. After the tedious process, a quick and dirty way to check whether the name is perfect for branding is to try to fill in the blanks in this sentence “Our brand is the only ___ that ___.”

Lastly, Scott warned several naming traps.

• Don’t fall in love with any specific one in the early process.
• Don’t have too many people involved.
• Don’t have the conversation again. Decide and be determined.
• Don’t shortcut or rush the process.
• Don’t ask for friends’ and spouse’s opinions. They are not objective.
• Don’t expect 100% consensus.
• Don’t pick it only because it’s the only URL left.
• Be objective.
• Don’t forget to defend the name in the marketplace. Check similar names and always try to protect brand reputation.

I agree a lot on Scott’s opinion that naming should be a distinct project itself. This reminds me of the software project management process where design, as if naming in Scott’s talk, is encouraged to be a separate part from coding and testing. The only difference is that, all aspects should be considered in the process of naming, while for the design process, only the design is relevant and never worry about the implementation and thus affect the determination of the best design and the best user experience. And truly, the warnings Scott gave can be applied to many cases where teamwork and decisions exist.

Notes and thoughts from Jack Dorsey‘s presentation in UofM

Quotes

Pay when you don’t feel you are paying.

Square做的不仅仅是制造一个模块让更多人能刷卡或者提供方便，更在竭力完改善整个pay experience。在常去的咖啡厅，报上名字、接过常点的咖啡和点心、走出门就可以了，不需要掏钱包、不需要找卡、不需要现金找零，支付在整个过程中像不存在一样，你只需享用醇香的咖啡和服务员亲切的问候就可以了。——> 能改善的，不仅仅是便捷，记得关注整个体验。

The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.

这个世界上先进的生活方式已经存在了，比如Square、比如用x10设计的智能家庭、比如lockitron，伟大的产品是要引领着我们朝更好的生活前进的，而遍布全世界将只是一个时间问题。

You can’t be too reactive to your competitors. You need to weigh what they are doing.

 

Random thoughts:

Change how ppl exchange things. Not anything can work, but abstract things. Abstract things for real goods.

Time as an exchange. For any services.

How everyday is divided.

Airbnb type share alcohol.

Supermarket checkout experience.

Ticket system.

Restaurant order system.

Name card exchange. Transparent card. Image taking. Navigation.

File exchange.

2.75%, something that the payers didn’t know about. Eliminate threshold created by monopoly.

Public wish list.

9/13/2012

notes from TED

最值得创业者聆听的10大TED演讲，源链接：http://www.36kr.com/p/149719.html

1.三级转变金字塔：生存，成功和转变 – Chip Conley

对Chip Conley对人类需求层次理论的新解释和在生活事业上的运用，然我受益匪浅（serves me well）。他说人类需求可以分成三部分，survival, success, transformation。他提到的两个人物，Amy和不丹国王，都并不用世俗人所用的数字指标来衡量自己，正如爱因斯坦说的，What really counts may not be counted，他们意识到这个世界上能被衡量的东西远远不够满足人类的需求，能被衡量的都是物质的，而幸福快乐健康智慧是无法衡量的。 不丹的国王说，We do not create happiness. We create conditions for happiness to occur, in other words, a habitat for happiness. How do you feel about how you spend time each day?不过说道那句Happiness Equation：wanting what you have (gratitude) / having what you want. 这个公式有种让人不思进取的感觉，不能苟同。而另一个对pursue的解释很有意思：to chase with hostility. 看了这个视频，除了对自身的影响之外，也对这片土地上人类的关注点表达敬意，当其他国家其他区域还在为了那些intangible可衡量的东西奋斗得头破血流的时候，已经有人指引着我们朝着更有意义的方向“追求”。从理科的数据控中跳出来，improve the quality of each unit，而不是疯狂地抓住更多的unit。

另外个人很enjoy：

3.白手起家的亿万富翁 – Richard Branson

9/4/2012