jb says: I don’t think you can tie these attitudes down to a specific country. Although, of course, they are more apparent to us in the country in which we live. Perhaps the influence of materialism is more predominant in the west, but if it is so, I think it’s only because we’ve been submitted to it for a longer period than anywhere else.

We leave uni with much accumulated knowledge but little inspiration sometimes. Levitt’s “Marketing Myopia” was the inspiration that accompanied me. 20+ years on, I still remember the article and I still have the book and I’d never part with it.

The essential question is “what market are you in to achieve or maintain success?” US railroaders thought railroads and were caught out by air transport etc.. Gas/electricity etc. are “energy” etc..

But back to the article in question. It’s the most open and approachable of academic texts that I have read.

When it comes to authorship and the contemporary changing world, it might ask the question to crime fiction authors “What market are you in?”

Storytelling, obviously. But what is your market? And beneath that, what is your delivery?

This comes back to the digital option, John. The railroaders saw only railroads. Travel, as they knew it, was their only product rather than what came next and what bited at their domain.

An author has a story to tell. To convey this, is the previously established “media book in the hand” the final answer?

In this ever open world, how best to convey it?

The product is a story.

It cannot be a “railroad” as that is history and we learn.

But demand is there. A good story is always something else. What media now appreciate a good story?

John, you are at the forefront in thoughts on this. I leave it open to you…

Best,
CFR

jb says: Thank goodness my job is the writing of the story and not its delivery. I believe the book as we now know it will be replaced by some kind of digital process. But I don’t actually have a stake in that. If I’m wrong and we carry on using trees I’m quite happy about that as well. As long as the trees we use are sustainable, i.e. that the trees grow faster than the books we consume.

I guess they started out herding cattle and never lost the original plot!

Academically, I say to them, what business are you in? The mere provision of rooms or travel hospitality? And because I’m so generous, I’d also add that I suggest they read Theodore Levitt’s “Marketing Myopia” for a clue and before they go out of business. (A recession would make that a certainty in my mind.)

jb says: Is this another book I have to read?

It’s December, it’s blowing gales and it’s cold. I arrive at the hotel and I’m given a key card to enter my room and I’m told that I need to place it in the slot just inside the door to activate the power in the room. The heating/aircon unit gives me all sorts of problems on the first night, but after about 2.5 hours and by sheer fluke, I find a setting on which I can get some heating in the room. I have to leave it on overnight and at the top temperature to actually maintain the heating.

When I check out after the third night and I’m adding to my list of complaints (oh there were many others…) the Desk Manager suddenly drops into the conversation that I’d need to leave the key card in the slot to keep the heating on, if I left the building. (Which was an obvious choice of action in the evening as the restaurant proved to be so dire.) I asked how I’d get back in without the key card and I was told, as if it was perfectly obvious, “Oh, we’d give you another one, you just have to ask.”

The company saves money by heating the room only when a person is in it. They don’t tell the (new) customer how the system works until check out, so they save a lot of money, I’d guess.

Well, this customer made sure that the large corporate that held them as a “preferred supplier” knew just how bad they were, when she returned to base.

The shareholders might be happy though.

It was also obvious that not too much revenue generated was redirected into staff training.

Rant over. (Sorry, but it did strike a chord.)

When it comes to CEOs, I’ve met a few in my time and I’ve observed plenty of pyschopathic behaviour over the years. It’s how they get there; what keeps them there; and what can also lead to their ultimate downfall.

jb says: Do you remember suggestion boxes? They were everywhere at one time. I don’t know if anyone ever took the suggestions up, but at least their presence made you feel as though someone might be listening.