Dig for gold where the gold is.

December 22, 2025

Good morning! Happy (last day of) Hanukkah! And, later this week:  Merry Christmas! And, while we’re at it:  Happy Winter Solstice! We’ve been having Weather Whiplash — with temperatures ranging from twenty-below to fifty-above and every number in between! And the wind, oh the wind! Trying to use the garage as an expanded, enhanced, and extended refrigerator for the holy days results in lots of scrambling.

• Have you purchased your NEX yet?
• Will you watch the new Sponge Bob movie?
  • The marketing campaign is a curious but fascinating one.
• On a homemade sign seen at Berger’s Auto Service:
  • “Twenty-five years ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, and Steven Jobs… now, no cash, no hope, no jobs…”
• I took the annual New York Times’ facial recognition quiz.  (Fill in the blank, not multiple choice)
  • Very humbling; perhaps even humiliating?  I got 25% correct, 13 out of 52.
  • Somewhat in my defense, I knew probably an additional 13 — for a total of 50% — but couldn’t get the brain cells to function quickly enough; e.g., Ohtani, Leavitt, Lawrence…
  • My biggest weakness is pop culture… I don’t know those people even when I’m given several hints.
• “They were singing like for seven hours, and I was starving.”  (Lin, 10-years-old, NYC)
  • The Met has produced an abridged version of the abridged version of Mozart’s 1791 opus, The Magic Flute, with hopes of attracting the next generation of opera lovers.
  • This version is 90 minutes in length — as opposed to almost double that when enjoyed in its original Germanic format.
    • My question:  Did they edit-out the Queen of the Night’s aria?!
    • What ubiquitous high note does she repeatedly hit?!
    • And, what is her relationship to Pamina that evokes such rage?!
• Story of the year, so far?
  • Not even close, not even close:  Artificial Intelligence.
• Do you love a good list?  Who doesn’t enjoy a good Liszt?!  Franz, that is…
  • The data have been crunched and the Drucker Institute has released its annual ranking of Best-Managed Companies of 2025.
  • Yours might not be included, but have no fear, there is always next year.
  • Here are the Top Ten — in order:
    1. Nvidia
    2. Apple
    3. Microsoft
    4. Alphabet
    5. Amazon
    6. MasterCard
    7. P & G
    8. IBM
    9. Johnson & Johnson
    10. Caterpillar
  • All lists are flawed, but for a deeper dive, these rankings aggregate data from five different categories, i.e.,
    • Customer Satisfaction
    • Employee Engagement
    • Innovation
    • Social Responsibility
    • Financial Strength
• I spotted a friend with whom I’ve associated for more than 50 years while both he and I were gathering a few groceries at Sam-I-Am.
  • This now-nonagenarian was using one of those souped-up motor scooter carts to do his shopping.
  • He was about 40 when we first started working together.
  • Gives you pause…
• Marketing/ Communication Tip o’ the Day:  Dig for gold where the gold is.
  • It’s an expression I started using 30 or more years ago; as far as I know, it’s unique, but someone else probably said it and I’m just unaware.
  • It needs no interpretation, but I’ll interpret anyway.
  • Meet your client/ customer/ prospect where s/he is and where s/he is most likely to be receptive to your message.
  • How do you know where and when that is?
  • That’s where patience and persistence along parallel paths enter the picture.
• Courtesy of good friend and faithful reader, Lee, we are reprinting valuable communication information he sent to us recently.
  • It’s called Wiio’s Laws and we’ll feature half of it today and the other half next week, how about?
  • Finnish economist and parliamentarian Osmo Antero Wiio framed these rueful principles of human communication in 1978:
    • Communication usually fails, except by accident.
    • If communication can fail, it will.
    • If communication cannot fail, it still most usually fails.
    • If communication seems to succeed in the intended way, there is a misunderstanding.
    • If you are content with your message, communication certainly fails.
    • If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage.
    • There is always someone who knows better than you what you meant with your message… (TBC) [Wiio, via LJ]
• More often than not all it takes is to punch the reset button.