Leader of the Band

[Garry Knight/Flickr]

“The successful company is not the one with the most brains, but the most brains acting in concert.”

Musing on that thought from Peter Drucker, I wondered: if a successful company, business or organization is like a great concert, then how is the role of the leader of the organization like that of an orchestral concert conductor or a choirmaster? Here are some parallels that I saw.

The leader prompts and cues his players and directs execution and delivery of the performance.

The leader keeps time. You set the pace for your leadership team and for the organization as a whole. They will follow your lead. It’s your responsibility to adjust speed when needed as the performance progresses.

The leader maintains harmony between all the parts of the team.

The leader molds a team out of individual performers.

The leader follows the score. The analog of a score for a business is its vision, mission and strategic objectives. As leader, you are responsible for keeping the big picture in mind always, hearing the whole work and delivering the plan.

The leader delivers a quality product to the audience (your customers). You set the standard of quality for your group.

The leader listens to the individual performers on his team and monitors the harmony that they create together.

The leader is visible to all the performers. The members of your team need to be able to see you and get their cues from you.

The leader gives the audience something to look at. In a classical performance, the orchestra conductor is the one who is usually doing the most moving. But whatever the context, the leader is usually the name, the face and the voice that the public sees and associates with the team. As leader, people are watching you and your actions count; remember this.

Make It Like It Was

[via Digital Trends]

Emotion. That’s what the marketer and the advertiser are hoping that their commercial gets out of us. That their ad triggers a feeling—an emotional connection—with us, that we respond in some way. Desire. Wonder. Happiness. Lust. Sometimes, fear. But never apathy, never take-it-or-leave-it. That’s a commercial failure (in more ways than one).

Some of our strongest emotional responses are connected to our childhood and youth. That’s usually the time in our lives when we were most carefree, happiest, felt most loved, most desirable, in wonder of the world and everything in it (and most debt-free). And why advertisers often use nostalgic themes, and images of children and young people, in their work: to elicit those strong emotions within us and connect them with the product that they’re promoting.

Here is a brilliant new mashup video in which Don Draper of the TV show Mad Men pitches a novel technology product to clients: the new Timeline profile feature on Facebook. 

No, quantum physicists haven’t achieved time travel (and least, not yet). The video's creator has simply edited a scene from an episode of the show and replaced images of the original product with Facebook’s Timeline. It's completely fictitious, of course (doubly so). It’s also amazing how it works seamlessly—and does a really good job of showing how Timeline will actually work.

And Don Draper demonstrates the power of nostalgia to communicate with an audience.

Click through to watch the video.* This post thanks to Digital Trends.

*PS: the original video link above no longer works; the clip may have been taken down as a result of a rights infringement claim by one of the companies involved (which would be a pity). Here's another copy of the video that is still viewable at time of writing. The video was originally created by Eric Leist.

Four for the Road

Remember some of the great commercials of the Caribbean? The ones we (well, I) remember reading, watching and listening to while growing up, that promoted the classic brands and products of the region?

We're going to take a closer look at some of our great Caribbean brands in the days ahead on this blog. For now, we rummaged through the YouTube archive and found three of our favourite classic television ads. They all happen to be for drinks and spirits—a product category that is a strength for this region.

Malibu White Rum

This one is from the 1980’s when Malibu was being made with Jamaican rum. The technique of photographing everything in silhouette—echoing the visual style of the Malibu logo itself—is brilliant. And Marley's music makes it sing:

Cockspur Rum

More recent vintage, I think (maybe the 90's?). Not great but it got your attention the first few times you saw it: a brilliantly-coloured rooster taking a boss-man stroll around busy New York City:

Lucozade Energy

I love this commercial—one of the best, ever. Cartoon animation makes it timeless, the soca music is fantastic, the wit sweet (the bit at the end is the best). Imagine: a non-alcoholic drink that makes you want to party. This was the first in a series from a few years ago that had the 'stick man' getting out of all sorts of sticky situations thanks to Lucozade:

Bonus: Tia Maria
I came back and slipped this one in after finishing the original post. Tia Maria was for decades the iconic Jamaican liqueur. The video comments say that this is an Australian ad but I remember watching it on TV all the time as a youngster; the words to the jingle came right back to me. Again, the music makes this commercial magic:

What are some of your choices for other great Caribbean commercials? 

Act Different

Crossing Oceans, Connecting Peoples: Caribbean Marketing Mix, Sept 24

The Caribbean has been the crossroads of world history for 500 years. In this roundup of last week’s marketing news from around the region, we see Caribbean people and brands continuing to make connections around the globe. Our stories link Trinidad to Jamaica to Ghana to England to Barbados to Panama. Follow along.

Brand Bravo. Trinidadian cricketer Dwayne Bravo is seizing the future and shaping what happens next for him after West Indies cricket. Taking his cue from sport celebrities in other parts of the world, he’s about to monetize his appeal beyond the cricket field and develop “Brand Bravo”. He has just released a music video collaboration with Jamaican dancehall artist Beenie Man (and featuring Guyana’s Timeka Mashall), called “Beenie Man & Bravo”. Soon to follow will be his official website and the Dwayne Bravo Cricket Star Search.

[via caribpr.com]

Bravo has certainly been versatile on the cricket pitch, as both a batsman and medium-fast bowler.  He also has been blessed, in my view, with real charisma and star power even from his professional debut. He always exudes a joy and passion on the field, regardless of the team’s fortunes, with a smile nearly as wide as the cricket sightscreen. Recent injuries seem to have sidelined his West Indies team career but he’s bounced back to find favour in the IPL and other Twenty20 leagues elsewhere.

I’d love to—and expect to—see those values of versatility, resilience and passion demonstrated in whatever Brand Bravo ultimately becomes. After watching the music video for “Beenie Man & Bravo”, I predict that Dwayne will most likely focus his brand building efforts in non-musical directions in the future. Anyway, we sincerely wish you tons of success, DB.

[via SFLCN.com]

Jamaica Links. Jamaica is now helping to maintain the connection between the country of Ghana and the Ghanaian expatriate community in Great Britain.

JN Money Services, the remittance arm of the Jamaica National Building Society, has launched a new Ghana Money Transfer brand in the UK, in partnership with the Merchant Bank of Ghana.

Remittances from its Diaspora population remain an important source of foreign currency inflows into Ghana and this service targets the 90,000 Ghanaians living in Britain. National football star and English Premier League striker, Asamoah Gyan, has come on board as the brand ambassador.

JN Money Services has been operating in the UK for over 25 years is said to be the second largest remitter of funds to Jamaica, with branch offices and agents in 12 major cities across England.

[via ChelseaFC.com]

Sporting Barbados. Barbados has just signed a three-year promotional deal with the English football club Chelsea. 

The partnership will give the Barbados brand valuable exposure to Chelsea’s fans in the UK as well as in North America and the Caribbean. There is also a social component to the deal as Chelsea FC and the Barbados Tourism Authority plan to work together on various community projects in the two countries, including coaching programmes.

ECB

Barbados tourism planners have been keeping busy on the field: this football deal follows on from Barbados’ name sponsorship of the national T20 club cricket tournament in England this past summer. The Barbados Cockspur Rum Club Twenty20 competition brought exposure to 750 clubs across England and Wales. Ealing Cricket Club won the competition final on September 19 (beating Chester-Le-Street) and the match was broadcast live on Sky Sports.

Barbados Tourism Authority says that its promotional theme for 2012 will be The Year of Sport: From Grass Roots to World Class, as it plans to leverage Barbados’ impressive reputation for hosting world-class sporting events. So, stay tuned.

Barbados Telecoms. TeleBarbados, a voice and data telecommunications services provider, has launched a premium voice & internet service package for residential users, branded “VIP 4G Broadband”. Bandwidth up to 10 Mbps is available, with unlimited local and long-distance calls to the USA, United Kingdom and Canada.

Panama Silver Men. We couldn’t end this post without mentioning another cross-Caribbean connection—one that also goes across history. Barbadian filmmaker Alison Saunders is preparing to make a documentary telling the story of the thousands of Bajans and other West Indians who migrated to Panama at the beginning of the 20^th century to help construct the Panama Canal.

Panama Fever: A Caribbean Journey is currently in fund-raising and pre-production. It was one of the regional projects selected for participation in the CaribbeanTales incubator held at last month’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Nearly 60,000 “silver men” are thought to have traveled from Barbados to Panama to help build the Canal. Their motivation was economic and the flow of remittances to families back at home helped to stave off poverty and enable a measure of social advancement for tens of thousands of Barbadians.

Alison Saunders made her debut as a feature film writer and director in 2007 with Hit for Six!, a Caribbean drama about, of course, cricket.

Retail Therapy

By now, we’re all familiar with some of the subtle techniques and signals that marketers and advertisers use to influence our perceptions and purchasing choices. The objective is to get the consumer to want the product, or to want to buy it right now.

“Early bird” discount prices on tickets for concerts and shows. Airline fares advertised as low as $9.99. Intimating how using this product can keep us, the consumer, healthy and youthful. Giving us a good laugh that not only makes the brand seem cool but that we just have to share with our friends (or on our blogs).

[Elizabeth Thomsen/Flickr]

In this piece from Fast Company, branding guru Martin Lindstrom presents an except from his new book “Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy”. 

It’s a case study of Whole Foods Market, the US natural and organic foods supermarket chain. Lindstrom reveals some of the smart, subtle ways that Whole Foods stage-manages its store environments in order to put customers into the most receptive state of mind to buy.

We learn from Lindstrom:

-  why there’s so much ice everywhere in the supermarket

-  why that apple you had for lunch might hold the secret of eternal youth

<  and why this colour is the absolute perfect shade of yellow for a banana.

You will probably recognize some of these very things from your own local shopping. There’s nothing wrong with what Whole Foods or any other grocer is doing, of course. It happens everywhere, not just at the supermarket: in the fragrance department of any major retail store; in the car showroom; at the Apple Store. Today, retail marketing is as much human psychology—and theatre—as it is commerce.

Read on: How Whole Foods "Primes" You to Shop.

Food & Wine and Rum

Barbados will host its second annual
Food & Wine and Rum Festival this coming November 18-21.

It will be four days of cooking demonstrations, rum and wine tastings and gourmet dinners to be held at some of the most fabulous restaurants, estates and attractions on the island.

Eight celebrity international chefs will be coming to cook, including Ming Tsai and Marcus Samuelsson. They will be joining six Bajan chefs, along with local and visiting wine and spirits experts, to put on an epicurean feast for all the senses.

We love the website. It's both simple and beautifully designed, with gorgeous use of colour and photography and nicely integrated media. The images of the cocktails and plated dishes from last year’s event make you want to dive right into your computer screen.

With so many world-class restaurants and chefs, and its own Zagat guide, Barbados has aspirations of becoming the culinary capital of the Caribbean. And, of course, it is the very birthplace of rum, which has been made in Barbados for 350 years.

Cheers to the Barbados Tourism Authority for building such a great website (unfortunately, there's no web designer credit shown on the site, so we can’t give them their props).

If you love good food and drink (who doesn’t?), then the third week in November in Barbados will definitely be the place to be.

Food, wine and rum. Eat, drink and be merry.

Feast your eyes: www.foodwinerum.com

Wisdom of a Warrior

As a communications practitioner and a member of both Toastmasters International and the International Association of Business Communicators, I am passionate about achieving and promoting excellence in both oral and written communication, in all spheres of life. This post is the first in an occasional series where I’ll share examples of great communication that I’ve found and techniques that anyone can use to improve their own speaking and writing.

[Alex Dunne/Flickr]

Padmasree Warrior is a Senior Vice President of Engineering and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Cisco, the company that builds the hardware and software that make up the heart, bones and nerves of the global internet.

She is a respected leader in her company—responsible for driving innovation and strategy and overseeing the efforts of 24,000 engineers—as well as in her industry. She has been named one of the 100 most creative people in business and in 2009 was on President Obama’s shortlist of candidates to become the first CTO of the US federal government.

Here is the video of a keynote speech that Padmasree gave at the 2009 Women of Vision Awards ceremony honouring outstanding women in the field of technology. In it, she talks about leadership and managing personal change. I think it is a great example of excellence in public speaking. Padmasree delivers herself in a way that is engaging, authentic and memorable and she does so with great skill.

Regardless of whether your next speaking assignment is a talk before a social group, a business presentation or a dinnertime keynote address, here are five things you can learn and apply from this talk to improve your next speech.

1.   Speak from your personal experience. Padmasree devotes the biggest part of her talk here to sharing the story of her own personal and professional growth, beginning as a teenager in southern India and later traveling to the USA to further study and begin her career as an engineer. In talking about her life, she could relate to her audience—and them to her—since she was speaking to current and future women leaders working in Silicon Valley, like herself.

If you are invited to speak to a group, remember that it’s because they think you have something they want to hear. In deciding what to say, bear in mind that speaking out of your own experience or personal conviction will enable you to be most authentic and more engaging. Look into your own life for the experiences, insights or lessons that are most meaningful to you and that reflect your chosen subject; then share them in a way that will relate to and benefit your audience.

2.   Add a little laughter. Right at the beginning of her remarks, Padmasree is able to share in a natural, humorous way the conflicting advice that her friends gave her while she was preparing to deliver this very speech. Laughter puts everyone at ease—the speaker as well as the audience—and lets the audience know that, hey, this is someone I could listen to for the next 15 or 20 minutes. Never try to force jokes into your speech—especially if you’re terrible at telling them!—but it’s always good to start with something that will make everyone laugh a little and relax.

3.   Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em. The speaker here starts the core of her talk by listing the five life lessons that she wants to share and then goes on to elaborate each point. This is a classic technique speakers use to build a talk: first, outline your main points, then develop each one in turn and, finally, recap and close. The audience knows exactly where you are going at any point and can follow along.

It’s best to make no more than three key points in a short speech—and never more than 5 or 6 even in a longer one. Outlining and reiterating your key points gives your audience a mental “frame” they can use to hang your words on and helps them to better recall your message after you’ve left.

4.   Smile. Padmasree’s smile is broad and warm all the way through her talk. A genuine smile while you speak helps gives your voice a warm and pleasant tone, shows that you’re relaxed (even if you don’t quite feel that way) and puts your audience at ease. So smile early and often whenever you have to speak in public.

5.   Practice. I’m sure that this masterful presentation by Padmasree didn’t happen by accident. From her choice of words, speech structure, poise and body language, you can clearly see that a good deal of preparation must have gone into delivering the final result. No matter whether your own speaking commitment is a major keynote address or just a few minutes of remarks, practice and rehearsal beforehand will always pay dividends on the day. You will get to hear and improve your voice, to fine-tune the words of your script and to really see how effectively the whole speech comes together.

Practice saying the words—out loud—and if you can, do so in front of another person(s) and get their honest feedback. When you take time to prepare in advance, it shows respect for your audience and allows you to deliver at your best.

Every businessperson and professional—man or woman—can take something valuable away from this excellent talk by Padmasree Warrior in which she also shares the five skills women need to be effective leaders today and in the future.

The video is in three short segments, you can begin watching the first part here. Enjoy.

BONUS: Early in her career as an executive, Padmasree Warrior sought out help to strengthen her personal communication skills. Feedback from her colleagues at the time indicated that she was seen as a brilliant and talented rising star. However, her peers thought that she was too soft-spoken and not assertive enough as a communicator and leader. I think you’ll agree that her years of work and practice in this area have really paid off! Padmasree sought out an executive coach but if you’re looking for a proven, inexpensive way to improve your own communication skills, consider looking into Toastmasters.

@event Caribbean 2011

 The Information Society of Barbados will host a major Information and Communication Technology (ICT) conference next month.

@event Caribbean 2011 will take place October 25 & 26 at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

Taking the theme ICT: the Catalyst for Economic Development, the ISB’s conference will explore how Barbados and the Caribbean region can best leverage ICT’s to advance its economic development and prosperity.

Some of the slated speakers

There is an impressive lineup of scheduled speakers and presenters who will bring perspectives from Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, the Cayman Islands, Malta, North America, the UK and elsewhere.

Among them is Michael T. Jones, Google Inc.’s chief technology advocate, who will make a keynote presentation on how Google is making good on its mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible.

The conference program will cover issues such as technology innovation; e-business and cloud computing; privacy and security in the digital age; leveraging social media; and healthcare innovation.

Special sessions will focus on how governments can use ICT to transform productivity and improve service to citizens. There will also be opportunities for local developers to learn how to get into the potentially lucrative business of building mobile apps.

An ICT trade exhibition will run in parallel with the conference and afford local, Caribbean and international vendors, service providers, consultants and entrepreneurs with the opportunity to showcase their products and services and do business.

All details of the conference programme, exhibition and registration are available at www.isb.org.bb/events.

The ISB anticipates that this gathering will be an opportunity to re-energize the ICT and economic landscapes in Barbados and the Caribbean. If you’re a technology professional, information user, business decision-maker, government or policy specialist, entrepreneur, vendor, consultant or educator—then plan to be there and join the conversation.

Caribbean Marketing Mix, September 17

Here’s our own roundup and commentary on what’s been happening in marketing in the Caribbean so far during the month of September.

BEER OF BARBADOS. Banks (Barbados) Breweries kicked off celebrations of its 50th anniversary on September 6 with a one-day, island-wide promotion on its flagship product, Banks Beer.

Bajans were able to get a cold one for just 50 cents, said to be the same price that a Banks retailed for when the brewery started operations in 1961. Special vouchers were distributed in that day’s newspapers and consumers soaked up the nostalgia at bars and rumshops well into the night—no doubt generating lots of goodwill for the brand.

Banks Breweries has since begun a series of full-page newspaper advertorials that celebrate the company’s achievements as well as its social contribution in areas such as sport, culture and barroom décor, i.e. its calendar girls. (No doubt the company leveraged all of the extra news- papers it helped to sell during the one-day special to help pay for the press.) 

We join with them in saying, “Cheers to 50 years” and look forward to what the rest of this anniversary year will bring.

HEALTHY CARIBBEAN. The Healthy Caribbean Coalition received half a million text messages of support from across the region during its “Get the Message” media campaign to raise awareness for action to combat chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCD). The Coalition aimed to mobilize wide social support in preparation for the region’s participation at the United Nations Summit on CNCD’s to be held during the week of September 19 in New York.

JAMAICA TOURISM. Jamaica plans to mount an “aggressive” marketing campaign in China to boost travel between the two countries. So said Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, while he attended the China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Co-operation Forum held last week in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

LIAT CABIN ADVERTISING. LIAT the Caribbean airline has introduced cabin advertising aboard its aircraft. The airline is partnering with Global Onboard Partners, based in Atlanta, to offer clients—such as Dominica’s tourism agency—advertising space on its seat backs. See our earlier post here.

NETFLIX COMES TO THE CARIBBEAN. Netflix launched its internet movie streaming service in Latin America and the Caribbean on September 5. Beginning in Brazil, the company says that it rolled out service to 43 countries and territories during the first week of September. The monthly subscription is US $7.99 (same price as in the domestic U.S.) with a “try before you buy” offer for the first month.

Netflix’s service in the US is reported to already account for nearly one-quarter of the traffic over the internet there during peak times. Will demand here in the English-speaking Caribbean proceed to choke the bandwidth of the region’s telcos (who have their own internet TV services in the works)? How will it impact patronage of local cinemas and DVD sale and rental businesses—both legal and bootleg? And will everything we watch be dubbed into Spanish?

Let the show begin and we’ll find out. (You can read this piece by Michele Marius for more details and analysis.)

REDjet TO JAMAICA. The new low-cost airline REDjet initiated flights between Trinidad and Guyana and announced that it will begin flying to Jamaica from November. Meanwhile, competition continues to translate into better deals for travelers, with both LIAT and Caribbean Airlines continuing to promote their own low fares and discount specials.

RED STRIPE. Beer is hot (only in a figurative sense, thankfully) right now at both ends of the Caribbean. Red Stripe, the iconic Jamaican brand, is shaking things up at home with a new advertising campaign devised by Prism Communications. It’s built around the character RED, a Jamaican brown bear who just loves drinking Red Stripe.

You’re probably smiling at the thought already, and that’s the point. The campaign is meant to be different, funny—have you ever seen a bear bogle to dancehall music?—and it seems to be attracting attention: the Facebook page already has more than 12,000 fans and the series of commercials on YouTube has been viewed thousands of times. RED the bear has his own Twitter account.

Red Stripe is attempting to appeal to a younger demographic and is thus making social media the interactive centerpiece of this campaign. It’s interesting that both they and Banks Breweries in Barbados have each clearly tried to create an appealing and engaging Facebook presence for their brand but have not reflected their new campaigns on their main brand websites. This is a trend that we’ll probably see more of as businesses opt to put fewer resources into maintaining “static” presences on the web.

Here’s my own favourite RED commercial so far but go on and take a look at the whole series:

SCOTIABANK AERO. Scotiabank introduced its AERO Platinum MasterCard credit cards in Barbados, Jamaica, Belize and Turks & Caicos, and Platinum VISA Card in Trinidad & Tobago.The card comes with a new travel rewards programme, AERO* Rewards. Cardholders can earn points that may be redeemed for not only air miles—on any airline—but also towards hotel stays, car rentals, cruises and more.

More or Less

Was there an opportunity in your life where you made a deliberate decision to seek out more? How did it work out?

When They Say ‘Viral Marketing’...

The new movie Contagion looks like it could really grow on you. This post thanks to Fast Company.

Too Late, Too Soon

The world waited, eyes fixed on lane five in the stadium in Daegu, South Korea, and then — BAM! 
Usain Bolt shot out of the blocks—only, the starter’s pistol had not, in fact, gone off.

[svenner67/Flickr]

A collective groan was heard around the globe (Bolt said something else, I believe). The fastest man on earth, the one everyone had looked forward to see run the 100 metre final, had messed up and taken himself out of the running. The false start rule meant instant disqualification. There was to be no second chance that day, no new record set, no historic performance made.

Just like Bolt, a business can make a false start when introducing a new product or service to the marketplace. (Some reports estimate that at least half of all new product introductions fail.) What your company has to offer may be truly innovative and inspired, your marketing and sales plans may be world class and your strategy may confidently anticipate global domination.

But it could all be scuttled as a result of a false start and disqualification on your part. Here are three possible reasons:

1. The officials aren’t ready for you. REDjet discovered this earlier in the year while attempting to launch their new airline service. After weeks of advertising super-low fares, taking passenger bookings and announcing start-up dates across the Caribbean, the brakes were pulled by the civil aviation authorities in Jamaica and Trinidad. The airline didn’t have the regulatory approvals needed to proceed. Months of delay ensued. Fortunately for us the traveling public, after negotiations and representations (by prime ministers, among others) the issues were finally sorted and REDjet took to the air and seems to be doing well so far.

The lesson here is that, just as in Daegu stadium, unless you’ve obtained starter’s orders for your product introduction—from the appropriate regulatory, legal and commercial authorities in your market—you could be flying out of the blocks in vain.

2. The crowd isn’t ready for you. The classic example here is, of course, New Coke. In the mid-80’s, the Coca Cola company decided that it needed to tweak its famous formula in order to meet increasing competition from other cola brands. “New Coke” was introduced and generated immediate opposition from consumers all over the US, who just did not appreciate the change in taste. The backlash was so severe, widespread and sustained that the company was forced to reverse course and re-introduce classic Coke within just three months.

RIM Playbook [khelvan/Flickr]

There have been plenty of other examples in the tech arena. The Zune personal music player has failed to get much traction over the years even for the mighty Microsoft and is little more than a footnote in the age of iPod. And when the infamous Windows Vista operating system was introduced in 2007, computer users in droves opted not to upgrade but to stick with Windows XP.

Earlier this year—wanting to catch up to the huge demand for tablet computers that Apple created with the iPad—RIM, the makers of BlackBerry, brought their Playbook tablet to market. It was met with a collective yawn by the technical press and consumers. Same thing happened to HP with its TouchPad; now it is virtually giving them away in order to exit the business.

All of these products would have had extensive audience research during their development and the most sophisticated marketing resources at their introduction. But the customer just wasn’t buying it at the time; or else the market leader had too strong a grip on consumers’ minds for the new entrant to be able to make any headway (more on that later).

The new guy tripped up and fell right out of the blocks, while the eyes of the crowd were fixed on the star-boy zooming up the track.

3. You ain’t ready. This week, the website of the retailer Target crashed after it was overwhelmed by opening day demand for a limited-edition range of products designed by the Italian luxury house Missoni. Stock that was supposed to supply stores for a month sold out in a couple of hours.

The opening of online ticket sales earlier this year for the London 2012 Olympic Games was, famously, a public relations nightmare, with many complaining that there was insufficient transparency to the ticket allocation process. The second round of sales held in June caused the ticketing website to crash, creating further embarrassment.

The chairman of Toyota has admitted that part of the reason behind the car manufacturer’s recall disaster of 2010 was that the company had been focusing too much on growth and new products and had, perhaps, let quality standards and attention to detail slip.

These are three examples of an organization putting their product out to market ahead of their capacity to properly deliver or support it. Take this approach yourself and you risk leaving a dissatisfied customer behind who may decide in the future that you’re simply a non-starter in the race for their business.

That may also be the situation for RIM and HP in the tablet computer business—that it’s simply too late for them to catch up and climb the mountain that Apple has created with the iPad.

The marketing guru Al Ries says that the company that comes to market first in any product category will usually go on to dominate it over time. And if that competitor is as dominant as Usain Bolt is as a sprinter, then—once he gets a good start and stays in form—all you will end up doing is eating his dust.