The Espresso: Edition 118
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Wednesday November 2 2011

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Letter From The Editor- Edition 118

The Cause Not the Symptom 

Recently I was chatting with an audience member after a speech and during our conversation he complained of a back issue. He said that he had been playing soccer and his back was causing him trouble so he was taking handfuls of Voltarin and seeing a physiotherapist to get it treated. Unfortunately he didn't realise that his back wasn't the issue, the issue was that he was overweight. Too often we consider the symptom and not the cause. Modern medicine has evolved into 13 minute increments, we walk into the doctor, you have your time, they treat the symptom and you leave. Unfortunately too few a people actually treat the cause, largely because it takes more time to diagnose the 'why' rather than the 'what'. The same thing happens in business. We treat the symptoms of the issue rather than digging down to the root cause. The Japanese have a process of asking the 'why' question five times. When someone is sick they ask the question 'why'? When they get the answer they ask the why, why, why until by the fifth time you get down to the real cause. This was true for me when I was getting a lot of calf problems during my running career. Constantly I would go to a physio and have my calf treated until an expert told me that the calf wasn't the issue, it was because my hips were out of alignment, that was tightening up my glutes, my glutes tightened my hamstrings and my hamstrings were straining my calfs. Next time something is not working or you are faced with a problem, ask the 'why' question five times and always think to yourself 'what is the real cause of this?' rather than putting a Bandaid over the symptom.  

Home

Living Small

Regular Espresso readers will know that we have had a belief that minimisation, de-cluttering and simplifying is a trend that is not only happening currently but will continue to happen in greater ways as our world becomes more cluttered with stuff. It was great to receive this story from Stuart Carver, an avid Espresso reader who has been following our trend across this topic and sent through the following information. Tumbleweed is a tiny house company. Started by Jay Shafer the company makes tiny houses...literally. In his previous life Jay lived in a massive house with his family and was becoming frustrated by being surrounded by stuff. As an experiment the unskilled builder decided to have a crack at building and built his first home. The house he built was less than a tenth of the size of a normal American home. Not only did he love it but others loved it too and now he has created his own business making small homes for others. This is definitely a sign of the times and is a perfect example of someone who believed he needed less stuff and is happier and more content because of it. Many thanks Stuart for bringing this to the readers of The Espresso's attention. 

Marketing

The Bungee Brand

We have included this story because its a kind of a cool promotion mostly driven by a conversation and interaction with an audience. To introduce the new Chevy Sonic, agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners developed a stunt that would send the car off the edge of a 90ft structure on a bungee cord. Essentially the Chevy Sonic sat on this structure and the more clicks that were generated through its website the further the car would be pushed along a plank until eventually, after 2.4 million clicks on the website, the vehicle was pushed off the platform and performed a bungee dive. The other thing that The Espresso team loved was that the 90ft structure was built out of our old friend the shipping container. A double whammy! An interesting promotion, maybe not the greatest of innovations, but the combination of stuff involved made it worthy. 

Technology

The Book Book

We love getting ideas set to us by our Espresso readers and this one comes from our regular contributor Emanda. Its called the BookBook . Essentially the BookBook for iPhone4 is a wallet and iPhone case all rolled into one pocket sized vintage book. It looks like a real 'old school' book and inside you can keep your iPhone, cash, credit cards and other stuff in a ready-made sleeve. So now rather than leave home having to carry different items you can just carry the BookBook which has got your drivers license, cash, credit cards, phone etc all on the one unit. Looks good, seems functional and although we haven't seen one we reckon this might be the way that things are going. The BookBook has two hardback covers which also protect your phone from the inevitable crush. Judging by the number of broken screens we are seeing on the street recently this also is going to be a big selling point. Pretty soon your iPhone will start your car and you will need nothing more than your BookBook to head out on the town. 

Kids

Driving That App

This one takes the cake. It takes multi-touch to the next level. But it took Disney to combine with Apple, two of the most innovative companies in the world to come up with a Hot Wheels app. Tied in with the Pixar movie Cars this is a physically interactive, multitouch screen on the iPad that allows you to drive cars across the screen. The app is free but the car sells for $20(US) as a two pack. Different toys unlock different features on the iPad offering different games that the kids can play with their Pixar movie Cars hero's like Mater or Lightning McQueen. The beauty is that the cars actually interact with the screen simply by driving your car on the glass screen of your iPad. This is a cracker.

 

Community

Let There Be Light

This inspirational story was sent in to us from Emily at Reach.org who said it had been doing the rounds on Facebook for sometime (under The Espresso's radar!). Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light) is a sustainable lighting concept created originally by Alfredo Moser to light the favelas of Brazil which aims to bring the eco-friendly solar bottle bulb to disprivileged communities worldwide. Their mission is to light a million homes by 2012 and we think they may just do that. So what is a solar bottle bulb? We could try and explain the concept but I think this youtube clip will do a much better job. Thanks for the story Emily.
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Gary scours the world to find interesting tips, tools and news to give you a new or different perspective on the world around you.