This month we have a guest blogger, Nancy Goldstein of Compass(x) Strategy. While Nancy’s firm focuses on brand strategy and marketing for environmentally and socially responsible businesses, she just couldn’t resist commenting on the recent launch and subsequent discontinuation of the Microsoft KIN. I thought she makes some terrific points, and wanted to share them here. As you’ll see, she feels the KIN case is ripe with lessons to be learned to help businesses of all shapes, sizes and missions improve their new product launches. So, here’s what she thinks:

On May 13 of this year, Microsoft launched The KIN – their latest entry into the mobile market. Just 48 days later, Microsoft killed The KIN. After spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising, $500 million to acquire a small tech design firm, and countless dollars and people on development, the product was discontinued due to dismal sales. Read More -›

I was a loyal United Airlines Premier flyer for 15 years. I loved getting on the plane first, sitting towards the front in Economy Plus, and always being able to find room for my bag. Not to mention all of United’s wonderful international locations to which I took many a free flight over the years.


However, at the same time, there was no question that I was frustrated by United’s horrible customer service. I’m still bitter about the Bengali booking agent who neglected to tell me that my flight involved an overnight stay in Tokyo, and the Manila-based agent who could not understand why rebooking me through Dulles after my BWI flight was cancelled was insanely inconvenient.


So it was with mixed feelings that I did not earn Premier status last year. The golden handcuffs had been unlocked. And now, although they have no international service on which to use my Frequent Flyer miles, I’ve switched to Southwest. I certainly miss assigned seating, but I love knowing that my flight is highly likely to take off and land on time, and their no mess, no fuss 100% cancellation credit policy is awe-inspiring.


I’m impressed with their operation and finally feel that I am actually getting what I pay for from an airline. To make things even more impressive, when I got home from a recent Southwest flight, I received this email.





I am still wowed. It is such a teensy tiny gesture. No doubt there is a random email generating program that sent it to me. But I love that they took the time to program their computer to follow up and say thank you. Not only did they get me to and from my destination on time and with minimal fuss, but they thanked me!


Small gestures of appreciation to clients and customers are disproportionately powerful. Are there ways you could thank your customers and clients more often? You can be sure they will appreciate it!

The Kellogg Graduate School of Management puts on a great Technology Conference every spring. It’s so good that it actually sold out in two days this year. Impressive! As one of the lucky attendees last week, I decided to really get in to the swing of things by tweeting tidbits from the conference.

This was the first time that I have actively tweeted from an event, and while there was the downside of missing some of what was said while I typed, there was the corresponding upside of 1) Focusing for a longer moment on especially interesting facts 2) Sharing with people who weren’t able to attend and 3) Creating some digital notes.

For those of you who aren’t active on Twitter, I thought it might be interesting to provide a quick snapshot of the conference by reiterating my slightly edited and enhanced Tweets from the conference here:

Keynote Speaker – Chris Dean from Skype:
- Love the word “freemuim.” This is how Skype describes its business model
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