Author: Hans J. Schmolke

And not 3 or 13. Albert Einstein was known for distinguishing 5 different things with one view (whereas most of us dabble around 3). Yet the most successful figure that we like for distinguishing differences, is 7. Take music, for example, the most widespread language across the world. Some 80% of all music in the … Continue reading Take 7 against the non-walking non-deads! →

Probably the most important book of our times was written 50 years ago: Exit, Voice and Loyalty, by Albert Otto Hirschman*, an economist with wide experience as a planner and someone who deals with reality in a practical way. Hirschman’s main observation – other than in economic theory – is that there is often no … Continue reading Why nagging drives growth →

Looking back to the old decade, what has shaped its face? Trying to paint a general picture, what comes up? My immediate association are the suppliers of the ever growing services that keep you connected and empowered. High Technology, but when it comes to customer communication, most of my service suppliers appear to be schizophrenic. … Continue reading What has shaped the face of the old decade? →

X-mas preparations in our customer gardening lab Gardening Assistant: “Why all these stupid baubles, candles, tinsels that I have to hang on the firs? If those stand for all the value, why not grow the trees completely decorated? I bet, you, the big gardening scientists, you just can't do it.” Data Scientist 1: “You will not believe it, but … Continue reading Waiting list for the year 33,730 →

If a customer index would serve as a navigation system (can it be anything else?) then NPS leads us to the smileys. What we want are promoters (customers who like us), what we rather not want to have are critics. These we call 'detractors',  because they get us down. Just to be sure: we still talk … Continue reading Lead me to the land where everybody smiles! →

A trick will only work for a while, until everyone else is doing it. To advance from the ordinary requires a new game, or a new territory. But the process of going outside the conventional method, game, or territory, is indistinguishable from error. Even the most brilliant act of genius, in the final analysis is … Continue reading Honor your errors →

Do you ask your data questions or do you wait for it to talk? There is something that every once in a while shocks me, again and again, although I mentally should know. When I look at my data coming in, when I look at their analysis, it sometimes makes me proud. My ‘Data Hubble’ … Continue reading Speak with your data lake! →

Although win-win seems to be a no-brainer as an idea, it is not so easy in practice. If we look at win-win as sharing a value between supplier and customer, then it is obvious that there at first must be some value to be shared at all. And if we talk about our ongoing customer … Continue reading Mining the Iceberg →

Do you think you can judge the network performance of the mobile operator that you most often use? I personally don’t care about research, because what matters for me is how something works in my normal environment. But I myself would not think about such a question. I would leave the judgment to intuition, to … Continue reading The world is a coin, and not a globe →

Our competitive markets have created impressive standards of product quality. Whilst years ago it was  easy to distinguish products by their quality , today the differences are simply much smaller, because all have learned to adapt to their customers. Have you seen rusting cars in the last 20 years? This high standard can turn into … Continue reading Why you need a customer gardening lab →