Cuba: the land of what you can do when you don't have a choice

(This is a version of comments also posted on Facebook.)

I've just returned from Cuba. What an incredible place! The people are lovely, the scenery is beautiful; it's rundown, but on its way to improvement.

But the single thing that struck me most was what the Cubans have been able to do because they simply didn't have a choice. This became particularly clear to me when I went into an art gallery with some of the best modern Art I've ever seen.  Every piece of art used recycled material. And yet it was fine art; it wasn't just glued together pieces and parts.  And then I started thinking about the cars.

We've all heard about the old cars in Cuba. There are a variety of reasons for their presence. But key to them is that they still run. And often without the real original parts.

Why? Because there was no choice. If you are Cuban with an old car, which is the only car available, and you want it to run, you just have to figure something out.

That's pretty much the way the country is all over. The cars,  the art, the food. 

And, the Ebola crisis has brought to our attention the excellence of the Cuban healthcare system. Two important pieces of data. The first is that the system is excellent, very organized, and focuses as much as possible on prevention. That's because they don't have the money to cure things.

The second amazing thing is that many doctors in Cuba have a second job. Because they don't get paid much as a doctor. One psychiatrist that I met was acting as a maître d' in a restaurant to augment his income. But he loves medicine. It was just amazing.

This is a dramatic contrast to the world of the Silicon Valley; this is the land of plenty. And yet, sometimes we forget about what it's like to have to use ingenuity instead of resources.

I encourage everyone to visit Cuba soon. If the rapprochement between the US and Cuba happens, the country will zoom into modernity. And, it's very likely that some of this wonderful can-do culture will be impacted by that.

The same is probably true about Vietnam, China, and  a number of countries I haven't visited. But it was so present in Cuba that I couldn't overlook it.

Happy new year. All the best wishes.

*************************************
Abigail Johnson
Roeder-Johnson
650-395-7078
abigail@roeder-Johnson.com

*************************************

Netflix and the Myth of Transparency in the Modern Age

A few days ago, Netflix announced that it would not, after all, split the company in two. You know the story -- recognizing its future is in streaming media, Netflix set out to create separate companies for its DVD and Streaming businesses.

When the company met with a very bad reaction from customers (and a lot of other constituencies), it retracted the plan. Some press described Reed Hastings a "chastened", among other words.

There are probably a number of lessons here. But, I believe the lesson in this episode is that transparency in the new media age is a myth. Netflix was attempting to be the ultimate in transparent: acknowledging to the market that its future was not in DVDs and a new company needed to be formed. It wasn't hiding that fact or playing games. Just taking steps and moving ahead.

A lot of people say that in today's world of 24/7 communications, the market figures everything out and you might as well just admit what you are doing and not try to manage your communications. Netflix did just that and was roundly punished for it.

The reality is it's critical to be a bit cagey in today's world. Or alternatively, do what you want to do but don't acknowledge or admit it. We have seen Facebook, Amazon, Google and many other companies do that repeatedly in recent years. And despite exclamations to the contrary, some of these moves might be a just a little evil.

Netflix was actually trying to not be evil. And it was vilified.

But what about leadership? (Redux)

Ugh! Over the past few days there has been a lot of communications about an article in the New York Times about PR in the Silicon Valley. First, there was the original story, then there were a variety of follow-up pieces commenting on it. Not surprisingly, though pretty amazingly, this discussion was really about "publicity" and none of the discussion (that I have seen) has focused on what we at Roeder-Johnson believe is the key issue: the question isn't publicity, "ink" or "buzz"; it's about LEADERSHIP.

At Roeder-Johnson, we believe that the goal of our strategic communications and public relations efforts is to help position clients as market leaders. That's really different from short term "buzz" or publicity. We can all think of companies that have gotten plenty of attention (either in the press or in the "buzzosphere") and ultimately didn't attain leadership in the long term.

What are the benefits of leadership? The most basic benefit is to enable a company to define its environment, rather than following others that do the defining. And resulting from that core benefit are some fundamental business benefits: companies that lead can:

-Charge higher prices
-Enter into better partnerships
-Hire better employees; and ultimately,
-Lower the cost of capital of the company.

So you probably wonder how leadership is attained if it doesn't come from buzz. We believe there are a few key steps needed:

-First, there is the decision by the company that it wants to be a leader and in what way.
-If the choice is made to target leadership positioning, we believe a basic architecture needs to be defined for how the company wants to be perceived in the long term.
-That architecture includes many dimensions -- from business and product strategy to thought leadership and communications strategy.
-In the communications realm, the first step is to put some language around the vision. We call that a High Concept(R): What is the fundamental disruption we represent and how is it simply articulated?
-Following this, it's key to understand how will we get people to understand the high concept: the need, the requirements and what it will take to accomplish the vision, why the company is in the position to accomplish it, and how it plays out for the long term.
-Then, on an ongoing basis, the communications strategy is implemented and refined to help lead the market to understand the High Concept.

This is a very short description of an alternative view to the conventional wisdom about public relations as publicity. I want to note that ink and/or buzz is certainly a part of any communications strategy. But it is NOT the end in itself.