She wore black not because it was this season’s look or it was featured in the endless log-rolled “newsworthy” stories of celebrities. She would not have cared of such nonsense in her day because she had style and knew that was not something you buy with your already over-burdened credit card but how you looked at life.

Yet style, along with values and “thinking” are sputtering today, a daily death rattle is heard as  “tweets” and “status updates” serve as evidence as sheep follow along to what they are told. Thinking, conceptualizing thoughts have become a rare breed as soft lead pencil and tablet were replaced with cut and paste.

If I am too harsh on the epidemic of cut and pasting, then where pray tell are the opinions of many, the right, the wrong and all the in between? They are missing and in its place, the ever-present cut and paste of a quote and banal commentary where every corner is filled with someone doing sophomoric stand-up without realizing they already are the punch line.

This not so little thing of Social Media has and will continue to change the world. The opportunities of a super connected world defies words but it requires more than cut and pasting, more than a fascination of oh-so darling celebrities and more than a smarmy fascination with this years Lolita.

Style goes well beyond the cut of the cloth or for that matter, why she wore black but of the type of people we are, our walk through life and the not so little thing of joie de vivre. Stemming the erosion of style or that matter quality of life oddly starts with appreciation each another and our world right now is in the ultimate of turning points where the hand of fellowship reaches across the globe in a second.

Have style, engage and share your thoughts and remember, sheep are led to slaughter and later served with mint sauce.

Written by John Davies
©John Davies Worldwide Productions, 2011
All rights reserved

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

The low haze frequency drone you hear is the sound of a generation, lost without guidance in learning what was once common social skills and now titillated with yet another tale of vampire, zombies and any other “entertainment” project a budding Lolita can be cast into.

The sheer banality of what constitutes entertainment and please I cannot bring myself to call it “the arts” reflects the long-term spiral of education in our society as well as plummeting social skills and lack of appreciation of true art. With near pitchfork and burning torch fervour much of the mainstream turns its collective back on the arts and education, gleefully accepting drivel from the media and entertainment sector like the condemned chimp at the zoo barraged by peanuts from tourists. Yet this lost generation who laps up karaoke, gothic tales and anything else they are convinced to embrace via the endless layers of marketing, requite with paid paparazzi to feed the addiction to celebrity’s, are not products of their environment but victims of the lack of true leaders.

Education is far more than building a career and improves all of society and quality of life. While I do not wish to lower the importance of enhancing your career, when education is allowed to erode, hope for the future is merely a pastel coloured dream and another election-day promise that can never come to fruition.

Yet education is not simply fine libraries and galleries but social graces and of particular concern to note, the art of conversation. While the ability to converse as never been greater with the advent of social media on the contrary it seems to be on the verge of extinction. From every corner of the online world, comments and posts are more of street corner vendors announcing their daily offerings or the ever present insightful quotation, proof positive of the brilliant thinking process associated with “cut and paste”.

The route to prosperity, a far cry from those focused on gasping for air in recovery, comes through all approaches to education. Investing in education is the one investment that will always reap large dividends and the only item you cannot go over budget.

Written by John Davies
©John Davies Worldwide Productions, 2011
All rights reserved

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

There are no quick fix solutions.

While I know this goes against the common grain of the marketplace, each generation’s insistence of addressing problems with a short term approach only digs the hole a bit deeper. With each year the problem burrows deeper and wider and soon the escape route is merely a politician’s pep rally speech that will be unmet in office after garnering the votes.

What is needed is what the mainstream does not want to hear or cast their vote for as to solve present-day economic, societal and environmental woes will require a long-term plan that includes some very challenging changes to lifestyle of the present.

The days of borrowing from the future for the present are gone but as the asset bubble continues to deflate over the balance of the decade many opportunities will be presented. Yet to harvest these profits you must be prepared with a long term vision.

For well more than thirty-years much of the world has forgotten the simple notion of nurturing and later reaping a rich harvest in the future. Economic success and the overall improvement in the quality of life does not occur via quick fix solutions but rather through investment in infrastructure, education and prudently showing patience during the growing season.

This is the ultimate twist of perception of present day woes, while many will use the term “recovery”, desperate to claw away from the extended economic slide, it is time of astute investment. Think not of “recovery” but of prosperity in the future that as time will prove out, will come to those who planted the seeds of success today.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

The super-connectivity of the digital world has brought business and consumers together from all parts of the world. While the great tea routes of commerce and explorers of the past exported items from around the globe, the present era’s interaction is immediate with very few barriers.

While the modern day market caravan is more the shape of social media efforts, clever marketing copy and the ever-present splash page, this instant connectivity heightens the need for responsible and experienced stewards of the ship. Social media, as the name implies is highly sociable and with “everything” on the tale for public consumption it is imperative that those guiding the ship represent the company, its mission statement and understand client needs and background.

Is there any difference to meeting potential clients at black tie affair or many other “meet and greet situations? In truth, trim off the digital graphic presentation and any other selling tool and it will return to classic notions of working the rooms, sans a fine champagne.

This becomes a turning point for social media platforms as whilst many thought the platform was open season for sales calls, to be successful you must be both learned and possess sturdy knowledge of the company in question but express in a professional manner

Yet social media is exposing the failing grounds of many in the public eye, from major sporting events whose child-like expert is only capable of prying comments of “cute guys” and other “genius” best left to drawings of unicorns and rainbows to companies who allow their products and services to be offered online like a second rate sale item. This becomes a massive hurdle to be bridged as with engagement, the need for a qualified business team to represent the companies at every turn becomes mandatory. The latter point must be clear because this cannot be the blind ambition of media and marketing consultant off in the ivory tower who casually understands the underpinnings of the company but an in the trenches executive.

Engage prospective clientele with earnest intent, representing the companies’ activities in a professional and accountable fashion.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

Cast one foot forward into the realm of the modern online business world and despite all the technological advances certain corners look no better than back-alley game of three-card Monte.

Along the golden route from go-go dot come world the internet was discovered as the vast frontier for business and quickly those based upon half-truths and log-rolled initiatives jumped on the opportunity. Sometime after the non event of Y2K occurred many of these ventures took flight and gained a level of financial success despite not grasping an older theory of providing value in services and products.

The frontier days are grinding quickly to a halt and off in the dusty horizon is opportunity but with it comes a number of riders. With the stream of money parched, the public is slowly teaching business the classic notion of building an asset base, seemingly forgotten for quarter-century that ultimately comes via providing a necessary product or service, of good quality and a reasonable price.

The pendulum has swung back but not merely in favour of consumer but businesses that respect the needs of their clientele and provide not just value but value-added service. Reaching out via social media, not to shout day specials like huckster calling over a mark but an earnest business owner, showing pride in work and ready to compete with their product.

Pride, value and service are each at the bedrock of business of the past and now the future as we look beyond recovery and towards prosperity.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

The ability to nurture is one of the most overlooked skills in today’s marketplace. Whilst the technological revolution has accelerated connectivity and provided an apparent ease of doing business and reaching clientele, the ability to nurture is never more important.

With super connectivity, an ability to reach your client comes within an instant, yet with this ability there is a need to nurture these relationships with earnest intent. The minefield of various social media outlets, notably Facebook and Twitter, serve as evidence of those who treat said avenues as an opportunity to meet and greet the marketplace with others shouting out the moments’ sale offering.

As social media moves into the future the near Neanderthal approach of screaming sales, including the obvious log-rolled affiliate program, will slowly disintegrate and only those who foster open, earnest relationships with clients will prosper. As positive is the improvements ushered in with technological improvements, this retracing of building business relationship is extremely positive and will further bring about more creative solutions to marketplace needs.

This draws an interesting set of crossing business paths as while systems accelerated and bridge all communication barriers, they must be used to return traditional notions of adding value to your community.

The paradox of bridging the communication gap is that as connectivity accelerates those who slow down and get to know their clientele will prosper and additionally enjoy a more enriching career.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

While methods of communication have shifted radically during the digital age, the problem of using it properly primarily, with respect to fostering relationships, is growing and must be solved for it is the wheel that churns hope for the future.

We reside in an era where information is streamed consistently, an unyielding wave of every minute of every day. With such information readily available, the assumption was that the creative wheel would be turned en masse but in-fact has birthed the habit of “sameness”, a global village where the few cultivate original thought and drones, “chop”, cut and paste and increasingly do not “engage”.

While the phrase “social media” suggests a grand new world of technical complexities, once you are past the subtle nuances it comes down an age old custom of knowing your community and earnestly relating to his members. Though the hors d’oeuvre may come in the form of an “app”, the similarity is obvious as building relationships has been and always will be at the root of success. You might forget the delightful canapé that was served but developing granite solid contacts as something you should never pass on.

Yet engaging in conversation seems to be curious failing ground of many corners of social media where engagement is showing stress signs. Is it information fatigue, a possible point in the long life of the communication revolution or merely a misunderstanding in the Global Village we must open the doors and meet our neighbours?

It is big neighbourhood of limitless possibilities, now just engage.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

As the world continues to grapple with an ongoing shaky economic environment, many question the role of political leaders. While that naturally is a matter to be considered, problems in the economy run much deeper than recent decisions and least partially due to long term unravelling of business fundamentals being taught.

Businesses, both large and small are meant to enhance the lives of their clients and community through their products and services. Providing value is phrase with deep recesses that speaks of the companies’ commitment to quality and being responsive to their client needs.

Nearly one-half century since Marshall McLuhan discussed his theory of the “Global Village”, our world is connected within an instant online with the realm of Social Media effectively a possible welcoming handshake at every corner.

Yet a quick glance at some portions of the Social Media realm lack a welcoming handshake and instead are loud speaker recording, plastering every listener with earshot of sales, promotions and endless promises. From the endless free e-copy of a very expensive book, oddly that never appears to be available anywhere other than where it is given away, to obstructive data mining and log-rolled affiliate sales, social media is not being used as a handshake in the Global Village but a pounding of the door by a snake-oil salesman.

While some wait for economic recovery the direction to look towards is success and with that sincerity of your product, adding value to your community and nurturing your business garden in the Global Village.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

The idea of engaging your potential customers in the marketplace should not be a revolutionary concept, yet in many areas of social media it is the rarest of sightings.

Whether you are “working the room” in a business function or recalling such an event decades ago, long before the digital revolution, the ability to communicate with your clientele is the hinge of a successful career. Those on the front lines of a business need to associate and respect their client needs, plot a solution-set and develop a level of trust that eventually yields to customer relations and satisfaction.

Stressing the original point, such an event is not new or revolutionary but part of the grand scheme of building a responsible business that adds value to your community in the classic form of knowledge, innovation, product and service. It is a traditionalist’s look of building a granite solid business, whereby assets are developed, churn through the P&L with profits presumably re-invested, yet all the while improving the lives of customers and community.

Yet part of the marketplace or at least the Social Media outlets are going through a peculiar period of adjustment were they learn it is not an avenue to turn over the soapbox and blurt out your daily offerings but to engage clientele. It is evolution of the firm handshake, a job well done, pride in your work and the importance of being earnest.

Why this has occurred is likely more of a historical lesson dating back some thirty years on the failing grade of economies and the lack of vision in planning for the future but the fact of the matter is simple.

Add value to your community with the same care and nurture you would to your garden. Plant the seed, water and constantly assist its growth with earnest intent. The business frontier of the future is looking a great deal like its historical past, where products of value to the community are embraced and pride of a job well done is restored.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

As the weave of social media grows over the internet and radically reshape its forms, the need for engagement accelerates yet for the most part it has resulted in precisely the opposite.

The great turning part of social media, though difficult to pinpoint, clearly started with youthful vigour. Building relationships through a cyber wonderland, yet maintaining a youthful joie de vivre. It was a frontier world of cyber rights and wrongs, at least of a cyber generation and for the most part without the watchful eye and certainly lacking an overlay of business. Yet as you cut away all the little subtleties it did something that is sorely lacking now; there was engagement. The simple action, albeit in a cyber version, of reaching across the aisle and engaging in conversation was both sheer brilliance and natural but also something sorely lacking in today’s version.

Of the present social media world, many corners of it appear to be more of endless colonnade of overturned soapboxes for good natured souls and hucksters to sell their wares. Pounding out manufactured, if not simply fixated scripts for the all-mighty but rarely engaging. The failure of many, that will be there undoing is that social media requires honest engagement, an open handshake of improving the lives of your community.

In this manner, social media can be used as the ultimate of business tools, well beyond a simple analysis of your Profit and Loss Statement but to truly bridge gaps with the marketplace and establish your brand.

Yet the pendulum will swing both ways as failure to earnestly care of your client wishes will rear its ugly head and if all you are concerned with is the quick sale, be ready for a long wait. Those who do not honestly engage in conversation or for that matter earnestly care for their communities’ best interest will watch their businesses decline. The present failing of social media is that is in many corners turning into yet another magazine, rife with advertisements and endless photo ops but rarely content that is worthy of intelligent consumer lifting in from the newsstands.

In the strange twist of events, the new business frontier looks a great deal like the old and once again, the importance of being earnest is at the root of success.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.