Ryan's Blog

 Last week, we reviewed principles of formulating and executing a plan to bring a new product to market, focusing on the MVP, or minimum viable product.  We already talked about the features and attributes that denote an MVP, so I won’t delve into that one again.  We’re all assuming that we didn’t run into any production or presentation glitches (Yay!) and that the material goods or services were well-received by the targeted consumer population (Super!).  So, our hypothetical startup has experienced some market success – the logical next step is to expand toward the demand ceiling, right?  No.  Full stop.  The referenced text ( Ascend your Startup , for those not following along) identifies this point as another critical friction or failure point for budding businesses. I can totally see why someone would ride their own hype wave into a poorly thought-out expansion strategy.  You’re sitting on cloud nine with a great initial roll-out and want to jump toward your end-state goals immedi

 I figured I’d jot down some notes about a web post I just finished reading that definitely aligns with skillset development and future-proofing strategic thinking in the advertisement world.  To be honest, I didn’t just stumble upon it while surfing the web. This was recommended in a course I’m taking, but I don’t think that takes away from its relevance at all.  Here’s a Link to the post in question.  My take: Bottom line is that the information age and the advent of social media has fundamentally transformed the most effective methods that businesses use to communicate with their consumers or clients.  The post quotes Jill Rowley’s comments about a specific social media platform; “LinkedIn is no longer an online resume.  It’s your digital reputation.”  While I agree with the premise, I’m not sure that limiting the scope to LinkedIn is the right answer here. My brother works in the digital communications realm, and his organization is reliant on the entire network of platforms to op

Ladies and gentlemen, we are presenting a chapter of Guerilla Marketing that is the bane of every procrastinator on the planet: COMMITMENT. Now don’t get me wrong, the idea here actually outlines an effective strategy to overcome such “personality deficiencies”, but it doesn’t mean it’s not extraordinarily, mind-numbingly, pulling-your-hair-out difficult for some people to execute.  I say this tongue in cheek, since I most certainly fall into the category.  I like to think of myself as “deadline-oriented” instead of a hopeless procrastinator. I spent at least an hour looking at memes for this image instead of finishing my blog today. "Image Source" . So, let’s talk about how we get around this.  Set multiple deadlines!  Yes, nothing crushes the soul of a procrastinator more than realizing that development milestones should have their own deadlines.  So how do we do that?  With a plan!  The book puts it in no uncertain terms; build a plan and commit to the plan.  That commitm

  I’m very intrigued by Guerilla Marketing , much more-so than the other readings in my current marketing coursework.   I feel like this book really nails what I expected to study in a marketing and advertisement management course, while also riding the “cutting edge” of future marketing strategy.   I did have a bit of an issue absorbing the points this week, however.   Partly because I’m in the middle of a role transition in my job, and partly because the material seemed overly complicated.   Not necessarily irrelevant, but I think several items could be consolidated, since the concepts are interconnected.  I found a great article from Marcus Miller ( link here ) that simplified the principles.  This is also where I found the excellent visual below!   Image Source. The chapter described the 16 secrets to success in guerilla marketing. The first five revolve around dedication; commitment to the program/plan, investment to meet program resourcing needs, consistency and confidence

 Having a solid, logical business plan when moving product to market is an essential piece of the pie chart of success.  As it has with other preparatory actions, Ascend your Startup maps an approach to such a problem set.  It’s absolutely critical to nail product roll-out, since attracting consumers or clients is the core source of revenue in any business.  Both the initial startup and operational growth present friction points that new businesses need to be prepared to deal with. Image Source. A central theme of chapter 3 revolves around how your startup needs to leverage sector experience when executing these activities.   Industry veterans have the “on-the-job” know how that can’t be fully expressed through academia.   Establishing a strong support network that can critically evaluate strategy and decisions can pay dividends and can spell the difference between a successful startup and another lesson in failure. The book describes four types of leaders you absolutely need to i

The third chapter in Surfing the Tsunami talks about industry perspectives on the potential impacts of artificial intelligence on how we approach business operations in the future.   This isn’t just related to marketing; better A.I. can translate to a huge variety of automations in all sorts of disciplines.   The book describes three general categories of said perspectives: optimism, pessimism, and realism.   Honestly, these three could apply to pretty much any personal viewpoint. The optimists tend to focus on the potential benefit of A.I. influence, whether it be lightened workload within the industry, reduced operational costs and lower consumer prices.   Their viewpoint might miss some of the concerns of the pessimists, however.   They’d forecast issues such as a tighter job market as artificial intelligence replaces flesh-and-bone workers, or less flexibility to react to changes in the business environment since automations are often hard to adjust.   The reality (hence, realis

 There were a couple of points which came up in my research this week (reading Guerilla Marketing and Ascend your Startup ) that have me rethinking my approach to business debut.  It won’t be enough to just share some pleasant landscape photography and describe experience activities – I need a legitimate assessment system to look at the feasibility and acceptability of potential venues.  In other words, what are the baseline, MVP products that I want to offer, and do they scale for patrons who might want more detailed or complex events?  Referencing the image below, I need to find the offering that fits into the middle of the diagram. Image source.   I’m brainstorming something a little outside the box – in line with tactics described in Guerilla Marketing .  Much of my current academic pursuits circle around leveraging the tech industry and social media to build an advertising system, so what if I applied the same to market research?  I could simultaneously conduct consumer outreach

 he second chapter of Surfing the Tsunami has some great points about the light-speed advancements we’ve been seeing in machine learning; specifically related to autonomous, moving robots.  It’s a fantastic introductory description of the different facets that need to feed a program’s decision-making algorithm to effectively transport itself around based on mapping knowledge (mostly sourced through Geographical Information Systems, or GIS) and variable, environmental inputs (what it sees, what it hears, what it touches). Image Source. There were a few mentions of “not-quite ready for prime-time” technologies that are being widely discussed in my industry, and I definitely agree to their relevance in shaping future operations in military medicine and emergency response craft.   Once we have fully-autonomous vehicles, it will completely redesign the manning structure of our emergency medical response industry.   On typical crews, base emergency medical technicians usually serve as

  I really appreciated the “MVP” discussion in Ascend your Startup , though reviewing some other blogs from my peers, this seems to be a common thread.  With that in mind, I’ll touch on the applicability of the concept within the service-industry planning construct, rather than material-product marketing.  Even though most people would look at this from a direct product advertising perspective, my goals here are centered more around understanding potential customer opinions. It’s absolutely critical to a successful business that the basic product hold enough features to attract early adopters and present a unique or novel option (to paraphrase Helen’s Yu’s words).  My thoughts here are related to my own considerations when designing my potential business.  While the book defines the salient characteristics pretty well, I’m more concerned with how well one can evaluate different ideas, align them with the business strategy and identify gaps in any assumptions we’ve made about consumer s

  I’ve always been fascinated by the accelerating development of artificial intelligence sciences.  The expansion of automation has enormous potential to augment (or upend, depending on your perspective) both production and service industries around the globe. While most people still hold deep-seeded Hollywood fears about the advent of true artificial intelligence – examples include “The Matrix” or “The Terminator” – I don’t necessarily see that as the near-term threat.  In reality, the scope of automation will probably have a greater impact on employability, since any job that can be “coded” into a decision matrix can technically be eliminated. My movie-style fear is more along the lines of the Master Control Program in TRON, but not quite the same cloth.  As machine learning capacity increases, so do our processes for automating business functions.  It’s not unrealistic to think that in the next few decades, think-tank software could be self-developing operational programs which obso

  I’m pretty new to the concept of blogging, so please bear with me here. I was extremely curious on the direction that a term like “Guerilla Marketing” would take in terms of defining features and general strategy.  I’m used to hearing the word guerilla in tactical discussions; primarily describing non-linear combat operations.  I’d assumed that guerilla marketing would be cut from the same cloth, meaning that it would describe a marketing or advertisement strategy that focuses on overall resourcefulness (finding new venues and delivery platforms) and broad, unconventional applications of said platforms.  After reviewing the first chapter of Guerilla Marketing , it seems this is pretty close to reality. I’m always looking for fresh and unique ways to message the force, so this discipline is right up my alley!  One of the catch phrases of my military specialty is the quip, “Who else needs to know?”, and this expands past collaborative work internal to operational staff members.  Sharin

  Hello and thanks for visiting!  My name’s Ryan, and this blog is a practical canvas for my own skills development in brand and marketing management.  I’ll be posting information regarding a series of relevant topics; all building on each to build a better perspective on the given field.  For starters, let me tell you a bit about myself. I’m currently working as a medical plans officer in the United State Army.  I’ve been leading military medical organizations and managing localized Department of Defense healthcare systems for the better part of 15 years.  I’ve conducted business all over the world, from Daegu, South Korea to Bagram, Afghanistan.  My experiences include small group leadership, Joint Commission requirements management, medical training and simulations application, field or austere medical support planning and public health program management. Some of my coworkers practicing jungle maneuver. I'm in here too, somewhere... I’ll be posting a mix of advertisement an