Andrew Lark

The Winds of Change

The winds of change are blowing again in the world of the The Larks.

The news is now out that I am fulfilling a long-standing goal to give Sophia, Zach and Kristen the experience of living down-under. We were literally packing to make this move almost four years ago when I got a call to see if I would be interested in coming back to Dell as Michael embarked on our transformation journey.

As I said to our team today, it has been an exciting four years and I leave enormously proud of all we have achieved together. Dell has an incredible marketing team and the marketing engine is firing on all cylinders. Most importantly, we are back in growth mode, have momentum and are taking share. It's an awesome thing to see and be part of.

I am passionate about defining what you want from life and going for it – searching out opportunities where you can make a difference and create. And it's that same view that has guided me in this decision. I love Dell and started working with Michael and the team almost 19 years ago. So know that as excited as I am about the journey we are about to embark on as a family and in our careers, I'll do so continuing to support Dell as a raving fan and customer.

In July I'll be joining Commonwealth Bank as their chief marketing officer. Helping lead one of the most important brands down-under is both exciting and a privilege. Commonwealth is one of the largest and most profitable banks in the world, the largest down-under and like us, growing nicely. They have more satisfied customers (see, you can't escape NPS) than their two largest competitors combined. Their marketing team is strong having launched a terrific brand campaign. And best of all they are a Dell customer.

We will based out of Sydney, clearly much closer to our family in New Zealand.

I’ve learned an amazing amount from the team here at Dell along with the customers and partners – both vendors and our agencies -- with whom I've worked.

I feel blessed to have had the privilege of working with so many great people – and know that an equal dose await me in Sydney.

Kia Kaha! Andy

Jet Pack Flys High

A really exciting investment made by the N0.8 Ventures team flys to new heights. Now poised for IPO and mainstream production. Very exciting to see Kiwi innovations like this making it to market.

The Tea Pot

One of my indulgences is collecting tea pots – especially from Artisan potters and Chinese tea shops. I saw Brian’s stuff on Cool Hunting and ordered one. It just arrived and I am really astounded with the work. Amazing proportions and raw surface. Brian was a delight to work with and get to know through the process.

Here’s a shot.

 

Tea Pot: Brian Grossnickle

Why We Ride

This one reminded me why we ride – and that it was time to get off the trainer and onto the road…

Rapha Continental – The Movie from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Internet Impact

Interesting study from McKinsey. Lots of highlights. Would be great to see this data for New Zealand and Australia.

• Most of the economic value the Internet creates falls outside of the technology sector: companies in more traditional industries capture 75 percent of the benefits. The Internet is also a catalyst for generating jobs. Among 4,800 small and midsize enterprises surveyed, it created 2.6 of them for each lost to technology-related efficiencies.

There are clear implications:

• Enterprises need to sharpen their focus on Internet-related opportunities – especially new products, distribution and customer satisfaction
• Enterprise strategy needs to embrace the positive or negative threat of the Internet to reinvent business models and competitiveness. We talk about Efficient IT at Dell and the Internet is a clear enabler.
• Government leaders need to step-up promoting net access – since “Internet usage, quality of infrastructures, and Internet expenditure are correlated with higher growth in GDP per capita”
• Education inside society and business will matter more than ever – Internet IT skills are needed in every job

A Striking Quote & Question

From the FT:

How the fact that the world’s average age was now 27 years old would affect the global economy?

“It seems to me there is a platform here [on stage] – a union of all the world’s information, interactive gaming, and location and mobility – that platform is the platform of the 22 year old today. The next generation of great companies will be built on the synthesis of that. If I were 22, I would be obsessed by the gaming which is part of this, the socialisation aspects, and the incredible knowledge I can get in many different areas. The sum of that – a new set of learning methods, a new set of social interactions – we can only imagine.” – Eric Schmidt, Google

We misuse the gift of our cognition

Tony hits on a range of key points over at HBR. This is a great insight:

So what's the antidote to behaving reactively — and badly — when we feel under threat?

The first step is to become more aware of when your emotions begin to turn negative. That may mean noticing your heart beating faster, or tightness in your chest, jaw, or forehead.

The next step, when you sense you're getting frustrated or anxious, is to apply "The Golden Rules of Triggers." It's very simple: Whatever you feel compelled to do, don't. Compulsions are not choices, and they rarely lead to positive outcomes.

The State of Journalism

From the Columbia School of Journalism and well worth a read… the report has some good perspectives… this got me thinking:

The digital media has grown into a landscape in which journalism ethics are viewed as relics of the past. Today, any product can literally buy positive reviews in a blogosphere that, by being penniless, gets easily corrupted. When planning a product launch with their client, advertising agencies often suggest the deployment of a “blogger army” (that’s the official jargon) to spread the right message on blogs and social networks. In the tech world, “Influential Bloggers” often means “Influenced Bloggers”.

The Columbia School of Journalism report sheds an interesting light on where digital medias are heading.  Their economics are in such disarray that publishers are desperate for new revenue models. In this evolution, ethics are likely to suffer collateral damage.

The Retail Revolution Continues

Gilt launches Gilt Taste beta. Love the idea. I’ve bought a few food products from Gilt in the past and it worked out well. Will definitely be giving this a try. Love their merchandising and offers. Gilt quickly becoming my other shopping place after Amazon.

Linked-in to $9bn

Amazing debut for Linked-In today. The noise around valuations and a tech-bubble doesn’t really reflect the work this team has put into building an amazing brand. These guys put in the hard yards. TechCrunch says it well:

… these are all my observations after ten years of interviewing him about LinkedIn, watching him shake his head at the unfairness of the hype cycle and keep slogging away at building LinkedIn regardless. Hoffman should be the role model for entrepreneurs star-struck by the seeming glamour and ease of Silicon Valley’s consumer Internet world. He’s the living incarnation of the reality of the Valley: It may be easier than ever to start a product, but building a company is just as hard as its ever been.

As for the brain-dead commentators wondering if LinkedIn’s IPO represents a bubble, somewhere Hoffman has to be laughing and shaking his head again. What part of spending a decade of building a business with more than 100 million users that no one hyped, that represents one of the few large-scale working examples of a freemium business model screams “BUBBLE” to you people? These are the same people that said Google was wildly overvalued when it priced at under $100 a share.