Strategy + Ventures: January 2008 Archives

What an incredible man and presentation!

This idea is loosely borrowed from the extreme programming paradigm of software development.

Essentially the idea of planning in Extreme programming is - Just plan the next step, Then execute, Learn and then Refine the plan. This saves time and cost.

I have a brief suggestion:

No matter what kind of project planning you do, whether extreme or “normal big bang” planning, After you finished your work on any stage.. Go back to your planning and update the plan with what you actually spent in terms of resources and time. The next time you have a project that includes these elements, you can copy paste the relevant sections of the “executed plan”, and have a more realistic idea of how things will unfold..

A side benefit - you know who you want on your team the next time around as well if you do this.

I joined a health club yesterday, because it was nice.

The concept of the club is recognizable - they want to create a place where you feel at home - a “third place” between home and work where someone can come, relax, meet people, and consume the product being served - in this case fitness services.

Starbucks did this, and the others copy it. It’s a trend - as people tend to watch their pennies carefully, they still demand more and more value for their money. So service providers move into providing more and more ancillary services while creating the “home away from home” concept…

My question is: Until which point is this viable? When all places (not just health clubs) are “nice to be in”, folks will make choices. And the choice may not fall on the one who invested the most and has the most services.

It would be interesting to see and influence how this plays out!