Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Economies of small

In this age of the chain dental clinics and the high profile , highly advertised, heavily capitalised dental "supermarkets" comes a dissenting voice from Seth Godin. Enjoy !

Economies of small: "

Economies of scale are well understood. Bigger factories are more efficient, bigger distribution networks are more efficient, bigger ad campaigns can be more efficient. It's often hard to defeat a major competitor, particularly if the market is looking for security and the status quo.


But what about the economies of small? Is being bigger an intrinsic benefit in and of itself?


If your goal is to make a profit, it's entirely possible that less overhead and a more focused product line will increase it.


If your goal is to make more art, it's entirely possible the ridding yourself of obligations and scale will help you do that.


If your goal is to have more fun, it's certainly likely that avoiding the high stakes of more debt, more financing and more stuff will help with that.


I think we embraced scale as a goal when the economies of that scale were so obvious that we didn't even need to mention them. Now that it's so much easier to produce a product in the small and market a product in the small, and now that it's so beneficial to offer a service to just a few, with focus and attention, perhaps we need to rethink the very goal of scale.


Don't be small because you can't figure out how to get big. Consider being small because it might be better.



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Thursday, April 7, 2011

I Can't Shut My Mouth and All I Can Do Is Scream

Please watch the video. The ice cream stick ploy is new to me.

I Can't Shut My Mouth and All I Can Do Is Scream: "

Here's a cute story of a girl who yawned so hard in class that her jaw misaligned. A bit of clinical trickery using wood tongue depressors and a steady hand of the doctor is what's in the prescription. The responsible party is, of course, the professor for not being lively enough for this student.



From BBC Three Bizarre ER show:



(hat tip: Gizmodo)





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