noho(pe) square hits the skids

Here's the view from Geronimo HQ on Berners St W1.

The large hole in the ground is what should be 'NoHo Square' - as sort of Covent Garden-esque shopping/restaurant/apartment development.

Developers Candy & Candy (CPC Group) have apparently run out of cash - they're also reputedly defaulting on a multi $million loans for land bought in US for other developments.

So who knows whats going to happen to the space?

Any suggestions?

Photo by resident Geronimo snapper, Johnny Mitchell.

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customer-centric

I read something the other day, can't remember the exact quote but it concerned the early days of Amazon when they were struggling to turn any profits.
The head Amazon fella gathered the the team and advised; 'Lets not be scared of what the competition does, lets be scared of what our customers do - because that's who we have a relationship with'.

In hard times being customer-centric is more important than ever.

The supermarket we love to hate, Tesco.com, are being customer-centric and pro-active in helping their customers save a few quid off their shopping.
When shopping online you are given the chance to quickly and easily compare cheaper alternatives to the item you've selected.

Of course, it's win-win for Tesco as the cheaper alternative will often be their own brand.

It's not a big idea, it's a small one - every little helps though (is that Tesco or Asda - I can never remember)

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there may be trouble ahead....

Excellent thoughts around the current financial meltdown and ting this week by Charles and Neil.

What are things going to look like when we come out of the other side?

I've been checking out E.F. Schumacher's classic essay on buddhist economics. More and more it's starting to resonate - not as a dusty piece of history, but as a way ahead.

quote:
'For the modern economist this is very difficult to understand. He is used to measuring the 'standard of living' by the amount of annual consumption, assuming all the time that a man who consumes more is 'better off' than a man who consumes less. A Buddhist economist would consider this approach excessively irrational: since consumption is merely a means to human well-being, the aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption.'

Charles says:
'One thing is for sure I'm sick to death of the word growth being used as if it's a sign of success.'

Marketing and economics are subject the law of impermanence - ie they pass through the following stages: birth, growth, maturity and death - just as humans are.

If we agree that innovation is often the outcome of 'conflicts' - the bigger the conflict ergo the bigger the innovation.

Like the fella once said 'if you don't like change you'll like irrelevence even less'

No-one's gonna argue we're not in the midst of a pretty major conflict at the moment so I'm looking forward to what's round the corner...

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