Both Robbert-Jan and I have been highly enthusiastic of Alex Osterwalder’s book Business Model Generation, the idea of which we discussed a few times before.

In case you’re interested in seeing the method of BMG at work, Mr. Osterwalder has made a nice little case study here:

About a week ago the company Bloom Energy has come out of ‘stealth mode‘ – they have officially announced a new kind of fuel cell they’ve been secretly developing for years. And while most of us know fuel cells as something to power electric cars with (although I recently met with the CEO of myFC who are turning them into personal devices – amazing stuff), Bloom are building them into boxes large enough to provide basic power needs to an urban home (of 2 for every home if you happen to be a US citizen).

In fact, their cells are, along the lines of typical Silicon Valley marketing practice, called Bloom Boxes.

I could go on and on about how cool this is (or be a pessimist and list the obvious downsides), and about the amazing implications this concept could have for us as a technology-centric society, but here’s a video of a recent 60 minutes piece so you can see for yourself:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

The basic premise here is that you can make your own power from a resource that’s non-polluting and available abundantly (although surely 100 years from now beachgoers will complain) and cheaply.

This is in stark contrast with that other big future vision: the smart grid. (By the way, read this equally inspiring article about the wired city of the future, how cool is THAT?).

What do you think is the platform for the future: networked efficiencies of scale or low-impact micro-plants? Hit the comments.

Related articles by Zemanta

• On Over-Hyped Bloom Energy Story (seekingalpha.com)
• Bloom Box: Best Product or Simply First Mover? (businesspundit.com)
• Energy Breakthrough? Power Plant in a Box: No More Power Lines or Emissions (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)

One of the industries in which the fight between the ‘old world’ and the new is the most apparent, is the music industry. While record labels are suing the pants off of filesharing sites and iTunes isn’t making a ton of money even though everyone and their grannie have an iPod, some clever folks have been calling for the new model to emerge for years: artists will make money from their tours, and the recorded music merely is a marketing vehicle for the live performance.

Case in point: David Levine had a quick look at Metallica’s revenues and concluded that 55 live shows brought in US$22.8mm, while 694.000 albums sold brought in US$1.6mm.

Ouch.

Which also serves to bring forward another painful corollary of this shift: how quickly the recording industry is becoming obsolete. Artists can make more money doing what they (arguably) love, playing music for fans, than they can leveraging that to the masses with the help of an overhead-heavy industry. It’s like 1950 all over again.

As I write this I remember reading an article in Fastcompany a few years ago that already profiled a music marketing company that specialized in generating revenue for bands through live performance merchandise. Will try my best and dig that up for you. [Update: Here it is.]

Be direct! Skip the nonsense.

It’s often wise to be direct and blunt when something needs to be stated that otherwise cannot be expected to be known. See, for instance, this well designed sign at the 3rd anniversary party for the magazine MONOCLE, the day before yesterday. Congratulations!

Made me look.

CAPITAL LOCATIONS is a fully client focused housing agency for expats, based in Amsterdam. The agency has recently been nominated for the EXPAT SERVICE PROVIDER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2010.

To win this ambitious title and be able to carry out the credentials, Capital Location was asked to submit a promotional video of max 3 minutes. Although the video’s main purpose would be attract more VOTES to win the title, the secondary purpose is to provide Capital Location with a promotional video which it can be used for a longer period of time.

As a client of mine, the aim here was to position Capital Locations according to its unique ‘personal’ approach. Different from its ‘Power House Style’ competitors, who are more concerned with numbers and amounts to score big, Capital Locations focus totally on its clients and is willing to work around the clock 24/7 till success is reached – real customer intimacy!

Credibility was one of the main things we had to tackle, therefore we made use of testimonials of real tenants, whom already experienced the superior service of Capital Locations. Sure, Capital Locations is here to run a business, but they don’t necessarily have to be all ‘business-like’ to win the hearts of their clients. Facts and rationality aren’t always the answer – while emotion, real people, real demands, hence: real superior service are things we all can relate to.

Sit back and let me tell you the Capital Locations story.

Alfredo Silva is a freelance marketing & communications consultant, also the founder of Klatergoud.com.
Don’t hesitate – let’s talk!

It’s nice to see that even GOOGLE finds it relevant to spend money on advertising. The world’s nr #1 search engine doesn’t have to let people know what they do – or do they? I’ve stumble upon this ad, which was first broadcasted during superbowl. The ad is a nice manifestation on how Google managed to be a very important adviser in our lifes.

Here the Parisian Love affair ad:

There you have it: the yellow pages for iPhone software developers. Looking for someone to code your app?
Check out TheyMakeApps.com. I’ve also loved the website design, especially the feature ‘love your keyboard’!

Bing?

Isn’t that the Google killer from Microsoft?

Yes, but before you click away, be inspired by their demo of augmented reality maps. Think of Google Maps, but then with added functionality. Pretty amazing stuff to see how reality and images blur, enabling you to travel through time.

And just like when you first saw Google map, but were not able to put it in the right context, this will inspire some great functionalities / apps / etc. Will you think of ‘m?

And maybe even more important, will you do anything with ‘m?

Most of today’s entrepreneurs were once motivated to this ‘free’ lifestyle by negative discontent with their current situation or by a great opportunity or idea. Whatever the motivation, being negative or positive, often it lead to a sprout of great initiatives.

KANYE WEST’S Spaceship video has successfully captured the negative motivation that led Kanye become what he is right now: a multi million dollar industry.

Made me think.

Spaceship from kwest on Vimeo.

I’ve started out writing this as a reply to Rik’s ‘Innovation vs. Advertising’ post, but soon I stumbled on a interesting insight that I want to share with you all.

See, for starters: it’s funny to see that Rik and I share the same view. Recently I had a discussion about the iPad with a good friend of mine, whom with all respect I regard as a ‘geek’. I tried to defend a point about the iPad being a useful product as he would demolish this view by saying it is just a giant iPod that looks like a tampon (referring to this funny spoof right HERE).

Anyways – I think there is something bigger going on here: a quick peek into Apple’s future businessmodel.

Thing is that after numerous of killer new Apple product launches targeted at ‘innovators’, we came to think of Apple of being such a brand: an innovator’s wet dream. Think about it: the iPod, iPhone, the integrated design of the iMac, the reliability and speed of its OS X and the simple and ‘to the point’ pay-offs  all destroyed the status quo and conventions held sacred by its competitors. Apple made the ground shake!

But is it really? I mean, is Apple really an innovators wet dream (still)? They current have  a penetration of 75mln users of its iPhone device, millions of iPods sold, the biggest online store for applications and music (iTunes Store), Apple is ready for the next step: to become everyone’s tech solution (including your mom! – thanks for this insight Rik).

When the real innovators and geeks are disliking a products like the iPad, it’s often is a sign that the laggards or better : the fast mayority would  love it.  For the first time ever a company came up with a mobile device with a totally intuitive interface available for your mom, the tech analfabet or your grandparents!!!  An welcome benefit is: that there are millions of people (75 mln iPhone users) who are familiar with the interface already and able to explain to this new consumer group.

It’s brilliant once again: a goldmine! Well done Apple!

So you’d better expect more of these ‘innovations’ from Apple in the coming years/ months, which is bad news for me and other (late) innovators alike. We are now on the lookout for the next brand that is able to WOW us, because its not cool when mom is using the same stuff you are using. Time thus for a brave new brand to step up – who’s next?

…and for the guys at Microsoft – move over and make room for this new born Apple Dinosaur.