Peter Kurer, chairman of the bank UBS, which is arguably the world’s largest wealth manager and the bank most highly leveraged in sub-prime mortgage loans, was recently quoted by Reuters as suggesting that the damage to their reputation (read, brand) from the sub-prime mess will “go away after two or three years”.
That’s not brand management, that’s brand abdication. “Goes away?” Brand reputations don’t “go away”, they are merely replaced by new perceptions. What has Kurer in mind for replacing a brand perception damaged by $37 billion dollars in asset write-downs and two recent requests for emergency cash infusions?
Time heals all wounds? Not so fast.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Small gods
I recently discovered that a friend considers himself a Luddite because he has so far resisted the seemingly inescapable social pressure to own a mobile phone.
Having just returned from CTIA, where the discussion among the assembled wireless companies and network equipment providers was once again on the subject of providing more data access, services, collaboration on mobile devices - and I feel somewhat like an anthropologist among the crowds because I still know at least one 18-49 year old without mobile service at all. That's right, forget mobile internet and collaboration apps... he is lacking even simple mobile voice communication.
Actually, I am very sympathetic - and in fact envious - of my friend's postion on mobile phones. As Jerome Lawrence wrote for the play Inherit The Wind, "Progress has never been a bargain. You have to pay for it. You can have a telephone, but you lose privacy and the charm of distance. You may conquer the air, but birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline."
Today we clone livestock and can grow a heart in a petri dish. We 'google' or 'wiki' information at our fingertips and can quickly become a skeptic, if not an expert, on any topic under the sun. We live and work in orbit 220 miles above the earth. We TIVO our favorite programs and thus appear to control the fabric of time. This week, a 'man' even announced his pregnancy.
Mobile phones have already allowed us to master the concept of being omnipresent. Success with these other endeavors will bring us closer to be omnipotence too. Small gods, each one of us.
So I cut my friend a break. Those who refuse the latest gadgets aren't Luddites. Just human.
Having just returned from CTIA, where the discussion among the assembled wireless companies and network equipment providers was once again on the subject of providing more data access, services, collaboration on mobile devices - and I feel somewhat like an anthropologist among the crowds because I still know at least one 18-49 year old without mobile service at all. That's right, forget mobile internet and collaboration apps... he is lacking even simple mobile voice communication.
Actually, I am very sympathetic - and in fact envious - of my friend's postion on mobile phones. As Jerome Lawrence wrote for the play Inherit The Wind, "Progress has never been a bargain. You have to pay for it. You can have a telephone, but you lose privacy and the charm of distance. You may conquer the air, but birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline."
Today we clone livestock and can grow a heart in a petri dish. We 'google' or 'wiki' information at our fingertips and can quickly become a skeptic, if not an expert, on any topic under the sun. We live and work in orbit 220 miles above the earth. We TIVO our favorite programs and thus appear to control the fabric of time. This week, a 'man' even announced his pregnancy.
Mobile phones have already allowed us to master the concept of being omnipresent. Success with these other endeavors will bring us closer to be omnipotence too. Small gods, each one of us.
So I cut my friend a break. Those who refuse the latest gadgets aren't Luddites. Just human.
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