Have you noticed how most corporate content is so badly written that it’s practically worthless.

Have you looked at the number of white papers out there lately? And how they all suck? At the collateral? At the websites? At the press releases and the fatuous corporate blogs?

Francine Hardaway has asked herself how she can improve business writing. Can she help more by writing for them, or by teaching them how to write themselves?

Teaching them how to write themselves is good in theory. But most people’s ability to write is more or less fixed by the amount they read as children and the amount of encouragement they received in elementary school.

You can tell by the volume of jargon, bullshit, unclear writing, and all the ways people obfuscate rather than clarify. It’s not getting any better. It’s getting worse.

Everyone seems to be going for quantity over quality. Which is a pity because the words are the most important element of any communications. They’re the language of your company.

The voice of your brand.

You’ve certainly got a lot on your plate.

You’ve got a business that’s being blown to bits, you’ve got hedge funds sledging your share price, and now you’ve got Gina Rinehart buying up stock like there’s no tomorrow.

Rinehart has already gobbled up 14 per cent. Don’t think she’s going to stop munching until she’s closer to 19 per cent, closer to threatening to launch a takeover.

I know you think offering her a seat on the board will placate her. It won’t.

Since last year’s exit of directors John Fairfax and Nicholas Fairfax, you’ve got two holes on the board. You don’t need them filled by mining magnates unless you want to completely trash the share price.

Offering Rinehart a seat won’t help your shareholders, won’t help your management, won’t help your journalists, won’t help your editors. Won’t help anybody. Except Rinehart.

What you need on your board is independent individuals who want to create the media of the future. Not another accountant or lawyer. You’ve got plenty of those.

You need smart people on your board that are into media innovation. The kind of people that can inspire your people.

You need to start leading the way or you’ll be history before you know it.

 
   
   stefano.boscutti@boscutti.com

PS: Sure, you can share this with your friends and other board members.

Jim Stengel recognizes that the most successful businesses are those guided by ideals and by business artists who instill a broader purpose across a company.

I know what you’re thinking. Another hippy love story.

Not quite. Stengel is the former global head of marketing for Procter & Gamble. (So no slouch in the grand capitalist scheme of things.)

Stengel knows that ideals and artistry are now real business mandates because (like all good ex-P&G men) he crunched the data. He conducted a multi-year study of more than 50,000 brands to find how ideals power growth and profit.

His favorite companies have shown significant growth by demonstrating and adhering to ideals. Companies like Discovery Communications, Red Bull, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Louis Vuitton and, of course, Apple. An investment in these companies over the last decade would yield 400 times the return than a bet on the S&P 500.

Businesses that grow faster and grow longer have something special driving them and something attracting people – attracting customers, attracting employees. And that is what Stengel calls an ideal.

Some people call it a mission, some call it a purpose. Stengel likes ideal because it has the word idea in it.

It’s the difference the business is trying to make, the impact, the force that attracts people. That’s what an ideal is. (It’s not a marketing slogan, it’s not cause marketing, it’s not CSR, it’s not any of that.)

It’s the essence of the business that is embraced by everyone including the top, and everything they do in the business is about amplifying that.

Ideal businesses are generally run by people who are very whole-brained. They think long-term, they spend their time in different ways. They really do take time to think and communicate and be with people.

They’re far from the typical CEO. They move with a different set of metrics. They swing to a different tune. (They’re more creative, more inspired. They don’t just sit back and nod to direct reports. They know there’s more to life than numbers.)

They’re the kind of leaders Stengel wants to see more off. They need to think about how they spend their time, they need to think longer term, and they need to understand their role is to ensure the ideal is right and that it’s activated everywhere. That’s a very different kind of activity system than most people who are in senior roles these days.

Someone has to be accountable for the soul of the brand and the ideal of the brand. In too many companies there isn’t a person who is accountable for that. A lot of the stories told over and over about the Apples and the Starbucks of the world are about that person

That person in the company who has continuity, who has understanding, who can trust their intuition and be courageous.

Is that you?

Just heard your interview with Robyn William on “The Science Show” on Radio National.

Your notion of Tasmania as a large-scale laboratory to test broadband solutions is breathtaking. As you pointed out, Tasmania’s size and population makes it ideal for measuring these results as a microcosm of the entire planet. Ubiquitous connectivity allows economic and social activity to be measured. And what you can measure, you can improve.

All you ever hear about the National Broadband Network is high-speed downloads and better video. These are just the technical specifications. What about the cultural specifications?

You mentioned distributing sensors across the island to measure all aspects of activity, energy flow, carbon flow, water flow, population flow, transport flow. Then turning that data into meaningful information to deliver solutions which can change the way that the island and the society operates.

Yes, you need a lot of mathematicians, a lot of engineers. You also need smart creatives to make the future come true.

Making Tasmania more competitive economically makes great sense. Especially as the benefits can be rolled out across the rest of Australia. (And commercialized globally.)

You’re talking about turning the National Broadband Network into a productivity dividend for the whole country. Whether it’s corporate or commercial, social or cultural.

You’re talking about changing the world forever.

How can I help?

 
   
   stefano.boscutti@boscutti.com

PS: Sure, you can share this with your friends and colleagues.

Typically not more than 40,000–50,000 words long, rarely exceed 200 pages, usually published in bunkobon size, and often illustrated. More often than not the text is often serialized in anthology magazines (Faust, The Sneaker and Dengeki) prior to collection in book form.

In recent years, light novel stories have been popular choices for adaptation into manga, anime, and live-action films.

A whole generation has grown up with this form of popular entertainment. They’re not dense or heavy. Short, crisp writing with paragraphs of one to three sentences in length. They are usually driven by dialogue not pages of description and tone. Think literary minimalism.

They usually play with language. They frequently use more furigana than is normally used in adult fiction. Writers will make use of unusual kanji readings which are not in common use in Japanese, or simply create new readings for kanji. These readings might be borrowed from foreign-language words or they might be completely fictional invented names for existing things. (Ooooh, fun.)

This exploits the fact that each kanji character is associated with both a meaning, and a set of sounds. Authors manipulate the various meanings and sounds of kanji in order to give words several layers of meaning. This gives light novels additional layers of complexity, in contrast to their sometimes simplistic writing. Sadly much of this writing style is lost in the process of translation.

“Slayers” is a series of over 52 light novels written by Hajime Kanzaka and illustrated by Rui Araizumi. It was later developed into several manga titles, five televised anime series, two three-episode original video animations, and five movies. It also spawned several console role-playing games for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation, as well as one for the Super Famicom.

The series follows the adventures of the young sorceress Lina Inverse and her companions as they journey through their world. Powerful magic, swordsmanship, wizards, demons, dark lords, and the occasional hapless gang of bandits for comedy relief.

52 light novels. Phew, that’s a helluva of series. It was originally serialized in Dragon Magazine in 1989. Then released in numerous volumes over two decades. The latest volume was released in 2010.

But the series is ongoing so they’ll be another volume soon.

How you doing?

Trust you’ve got some time to consider some feedback from a prospective guest.

I was looking for a quick break away with my partner at Lorne on Victoria’s surf coast. Somewhere close to home after a hectic Christmas and all. Figured a break away for three nights in the middle of a week after all the tourists had gone would be a good idea.

We’d heard good things about the Mantra Erskine Beach Resort. It looks a little clumsy, but it’s right on the foreshore with sand and soft waves just meters away. Seemed ideal.

Looked at some of the accommodation options on the Mantra website and decided on a one bedroom apartment. Noticed that you were offering a “Book Three Nights, Pay For Two” deal signed off by none other that Pat Rafter. They’re billed as “Pat’s Mates Rates.” “Summer’s Best Deal,” no less.

So far so good. I ring the resort and the phone call cuts out. Call again and the same thing happens. Hmmm, call gets through on the third try but they can’t take the booking over the phone because specials have to go through central reservations. Oooookay.

I’m sure you know what happens next. I’m on hold for more than ten minutes (listening to an inane audio loop about personal mantras) only to be told the offer doesn’t apply on the dates I’d like. You know why? Because when you figure in the block-out dates, the special only applies for ten days in the whole of summer.

So not really “Summer’s Best Deal” unless you think summer lasts for a little more than a week. Naturally I couldn’t go ahead with the booking.

The whole experience just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Looks like we’re off to the MONA Pavilions in Hobart.

Thanks

 
   
   stefano.boscutti@boscutti.com

PS: Of course, you can share this with your friends and colleagues.

Bullshit has become the official language of business.

Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway and Jon Warshawsky aren’t afraid to write a book about it. (“Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter’s Guide”)

All three are veterans of the consulting giant Deloitte, and know all about hype-filled, self-aggrandizing product literature and elephantine reports that shed less than two watts of light on the big issues.

Dull, verbose, evasive language that disguises empty-headed cliches with jargon-drenched hype is a waste of time and energy. Corporate pseudo-communication doesn’t help anyone. You’re never going to bore anyone into doing business with you.

Common communication traps of business executives include the tendency to write obscure, colorless, template information rather than clear material that speaks directly to your audience.

You have to go back to basic, substantive communications. Frank, honest and forthright. Funny, honest and engaging.

Personality, humanity and candor are being sucked out of the workplace. Let the wonks send their empty messages.

Let yours connect.

His hands are behind his back, dull black frock coat beating in the wind. Black stockings, black shoes, black hat, black hair.

A woman out for her power walk powers up behind him. Black stretch tights, black stretch top, black hair.

She power walks right past him.

Wow, I love your “Mother of All Solutions for the Global Crisis” essay in New Perspective Quarterly.

Talk about calling a spade a spade. Talk about calling out the truth.

Couldn’t agree more with your call to reject the idea that the crisis is due to bad financial management, contagion or loss of confidence in our institutions.

To solve the present crisis we have to acknowledge that it is the result of criminal abuses by certain market players. No amount of currency printing or debt manipulation will bring back the wealth. (It’s gone, man. It’s gone.)

You point out that all those institutions which lost money must be shut down. Good point. Why hasn’t that happened already? Why are they still trying to hang on for grim life? They’re a cancer. They’ve got to go.

You’re right that we need to draw up a new global monetary system, a much more open banking system and a new financial system.

The new monetary system should be based on gold as represented by an international currency to be used for international trade only. Domestic currencies of all countries would be valued against gold. (Hey, if a new gold standard is good enough for World Bank President Robert Zoellick, it’s good enough for me.)

Banks and reserves should be allowed to create only a limited amount of money. The smaller amount of money that banks can subsequently lend will no doubt lead to slower growth of the economies of countries. Better to have slower growth than accelerated international financial crises and the accompanying social disasters.

You made some other points that had me nodding in agreement.

Financial transactions must be transparent and regulated by governments. There should be no offshore financial houses. Money must be lent only for real business that produces goods and services and for trade. Trading in currencies must be classified as a business crime. Short-selling should be disallowed. Leveraging should be severely limited.

You had even more radical ideas to repeal the greed and lack of transparency that have infected the global economy. Your notion about democratically elected officers at the IMF and World Bank? Excellent.

Like you said, when it comes to the mother of all crises, only the mother of all solutions will bring it to an end.

Thanks

 
   
   stefano.boscutti@boscutti.com

PS: Of course, you can share this with your friends and colleagues.

Have you noticed that faraway look when people are reading on trains.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a book or newspaper or magazine or phone. They’re there but they’re not really there.

Rarely do I see anyone absentmindedly looking out the window anymore, or staring off into the middle distance, happy in their own thoughts. Instead they’re interacting with a fellow traveler either in the flesh (if they’re young or family) or electronically. Or they’re entertaining themselves with songs, games, videos, stories. They’re not so much traveling as storying.

Phones, ereaders, pads and the gadget du jour are story delivery systems. We can’t seem to get enough of them. Notice the Kindle reader lost in his own world.

His eyes slightly glazed. He blinks slowly, breathes deeply. He doesn’t see the passengers passing by.

When the train stops at the station, his concentration breaks. He looks up, recognizes his stop.

He gets up and steps out of one world into the next.