Job to Be Done

We've added a number of interesting corporate locations to amuz over the years, including Apple Park.

** Oracle's famous hard drives make an appearance in the video as well, though the Company's headquarters has moved east. **

The explosion of remote work makes me wonder how important and effective these spaces are. In Apple's case, the facility is enormous and quite different than everything around it, as the amuz aerials illustrate.

Organizing people to work together effectively is surely one of the great challenges (and opportunities) over the next few decades. In person, remote, "hybrid", contractors, teams, "ai"/bots and so on. The choices are endless and no small hurdle.

Further, entrepreneurs must consider augmenting human skills, replacing them or organizing people around "ai" skills, as Neal notes:

There there is a much deeper problem that needs to be dealt with – the knowledge that underpins the organisation, that defines it, and its processes, is often a chaotic, self-contradictory mess of disconnected documents, fragmented files and siloed concepts.

amuz includes a number of headquarter, museum and corporate facilities from Toyota's auto museum in Nagoya, BMW Welt in Munich, the Harley Davidson Museum, Ariens Company Museum, the John Deere Pavilion in Moline, IL, Source Perrier in Vergeze, Kohler's Design Center, Kinze in Williamsburg, IA, Nikon in Tokyo, Fragonard in Grasse, France to the SAME Museum in Treviglio.

The Sign Museum in Cincinnati and Las Vegas's Neon Museum are useful complements.

Some, perhaps all of these are brand exercises. Will there be more? Do the facilities help or hinder strategy, tactics and cohesion? What are the essential "jobs to be done" over the next decade or two? Will they include branded bricks and mortar?

Regardless, I find the history of these places fascinating.

Finally, we've had a few related student projects including Milwaukee Tool, a boat company and the Pabst Mansion.

Explore in amuz on iOS, android and visionOS.

Built to last: Tony Hook and Carol (Orange) Schroeder

My introduction to the 9 September 2024 Madison Literary Club Meeting:

Driving from Yosemite to San Francisco recently, Nancy and I briefly visited an Oakdale cafe. The proprietor asked where we were from. I replied Wisconsin, Madison.

"Oh, great. I need to find great cheese, not the ______ we make in California".

I connected him with Hook's Cheese distributor.

That brief conversation made me wonder how Hooks cheese is made including the milk supply and people skills, how they created awareness around the Country, built distribution, their retail experiences including the Dane County Farmer's market and just how they keep it all going.

I've asked Tony Hook to discuss their story: the Art of Hook's cheese.

Another iconic entrepreneur plans to join us and discuss their retail business: Orange Tree Imports. I've asked Carol to give us a brief history of their business, brand building, including motivation, product and experience choices along with the big changes to retail over the past decades and how they have survived and thrived.

Finally I've asked both to reflect and share what they would tell themselves at startup time, knowing all they do today.

Learn more:
https://hookscheese.com

and

https://orangetreeimports.com

Enjoy the program below, or listen via this mp3 audio file.

Machine generated transcript.

Roland-Garros and the Olympics: A Love Match

There was delight and anticipation when Paris was awarded the Olympic Games and Roland-Garros designated the tennis venue. Roland-Garros is one of the most beautiful tennis complexes in the world. The 34 acre site is adjacent to gardens and charming places to stroll and sit. Each day we arrived with a baguette and picnic selections. There was strong security but also a French recognition that satisfying the palate presented no great risk.

The iconic red clay courts have been the site of many historic matches including 14 French Open titles for Spaniard Rafa Nadal. A statue of a frenzied looking Nadal in action greets visitors at the entrance. Before the Games began Nadal announced he would play with current ATP phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz to represent Spain in men’s doubles. There was fevered anticipation of the old guard partnering with youth in perhaps his last valiant attempt at French glory.

#Nadalcaraz images.

Carlos Alcaraz images.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia also made his heart and intentions clear that he was aiming for the one bit of hardware that had eluded him in his storied career: a gold medal. It was a thrill to see the Serbian fans exhault in loud cheers of “Nole, Nole, Nole” a la the Ole chants of international soccer matches.

Tennis at the Olympics may seem an odd fit. Unlike sports like swimming or marathons, professional tennis players are mostly together every week year around as they compete and make their living. Despite that, it was fun to see the obvious patriotic enthusiasm and pride which the competitors displayed.

We considered ourselves fortunate to have seen so much tennis during the first three days of the nine day competition. We had a natural bias toward seeing American players. We were able to explore the outside courts to see Emma Navarro and delighted meeting her collegiate University of Virginia coaches. We also saw Coco Gauff and Danielle Collins.

Emma Navarro images. Coaches: Sara O'Leary & Gina Suarez-Malaguti.

Coco Gauff images.

Danielle Collins images.

Surprisingly or not, we found the doubles play most compelling. What a thrill to see Rajeev Ram, at 40 years old, and Austin Krajicek play. Their team communication and savvy shot selection could inspire any competitive player or business executive. Frankly that level of strategy was missing from a number of top singles players who teamed with compatriots to play doubles.

Austin Krajicek and Ram Rajeev images [Silver Medalist].

Shout out also to Angelique Kerber of Germany, future Hall of Famer and Grand Slam champion. Kerber announced the Olympics would be her last professional tournament. At 36 years young she showed why she was a champion and went as far as being a set up on eventual gold medalist Zheng Qinwen of China before losing in three sets. It was a valiant effort and classic way to go out swinging.