Tag Archives: Hip-Hop

#226 (It is about your record….(

 My track record starts piling

Based on quality and productivity, you deserve firing

The Black Opera (Sleep Tight)

Takeaway 226:  BPM wants to thank Airjohnston’s Hip Hop World (check the site out: http://ajhiphopworld.com/) for reminding us of this gem.  This is not a Mitt Romney cut or a Bain Capital/private equity dig.  BPM does not “like” firing people.

This is the corollary to Takeaway #2 –Past results are not indicative of future performance.  Past data cannot predict future results – but that is just the statistical proof.

The reality, however, is that people judge whether or not to fire, hire and promote you on your past success .  The want to do business based on what? – your track record.  Start piling…

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Old school takeaway #8. Put in the work, business is about relationships.

I’m just sitting here making myself nauseous
with this ugly food that stinks
so you bust out the door while its still closed
still sick from the food you ate
and then you run to the store for quick relief
from a bottle of Kaopectate
and then you call your friend two weeks later
to see how he has been
and he says I understand about the food
baby-bubba but we’re still friends

Sugar Hill Gang ♦ Rapper’s Delight

BPM could not drop knowledge without mentioning some of the more formative lyrics of the genre.  BPM thinks of this when doing the dreaded task.  You know, there is the one telephone call you have not made or the one deal you have been avoided analyzing.  You can’t do it.   It’s the Nasty Food . . . .  It’s the dirty task nobody wants to deal with.  Look, roll up your sleeves and get it done. This guy not only eats the ugly food (does-the-drudgery), but he sucks it up and calls his friend back after the experience.  In fact, the telephone call to the friend is one of the more interesting elements.  You are going to go through some bad experiences with good people.  Don’t burn the relationship over the circumstances.  Pick up the telephone and keep the dialogue going.  You just don’t know when you will do business with that person again.

BPM TAKEAWAY#6:

  • DON’T HESITATE TO COMPLETE THE DRUDGE WORK

  • DON’T BURN A BRIDGE FROM ONE BAD EXPERIENCE

  • BUSINESS – IT’S THE RELATIONSHIPS, STUPID

 

Bonus:  See Ed Piskour’s hip-hop-family-tree for a graphic take on the origins.  Special thanks to Warloq (from the BPM) for supplemental research.

 

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Strategic vs. Tactical + “` “` “` nature of the long run

What separates the men from the niños

is a big failure or a fly Benzino

I’ve had all of that, yo se lo que te digo

Gotta be there in the long run for my hijos

Sen Dog   Stand Up ♦ Diary of a Mad Dog

Takeaway #151:  Sen Dog knows what he is talking about and he will certainly be there for his and your kids.  This is a long range game not a short-term Bertrand model of downward spiral price-cutting.  If you are in it for the long run and a continued share of the monopolistic profits for you and your successors, you need to build a sustainable model and avoid a colossal failure with short term profit thinking.  Be strategic, not simply tactical – today and in the long run.

Ironically, however, sometimes being strategic requires thinking functionallly, but acting strategically (Click Extra 2 below)

Extra 1: Read 6 habits of strategic thinkers: http://www.inc.com/paul-schoemaker/6-habits-of-strategic-thinkers.html

Extra 2: S&B: Think Functionally, Act Strategically

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The Brand Speaks for itself or Takeaway#3

I’m genuine like Gucci, raw like sushi

Big Daddy Kane  Raw ♦ Long Live the Kane

Speak less, say more.  There is a beauty to this Strunk & White concise statement that can only be destroyed by commentary.

BPM thinks of the essence of branding when hearing this line.  The succinct couplet tells BMP who e Kane is.  He is a quality item.  He certainly is not one of the knock-off Rolexes and Louis Vuitton bags that littered the streets of New York and Venice when he wrote this line.  He is the genuine article.  Moreover, he has texture and taste.  Taste the wasabi and know that he is potent.  It is beautiful.

How many of us can say the same for our practice and our own corporate brand.  Do you say too much in memoranda and meetings?  Does your PowerPoint deck have too made slides?  Sometimes, the talkative dilute efficacy by speaking too much and really saying nothing … all sound and fury.

Does your communication and tagline succinctly address the fullness of your brand?   Let this be a model to tightening your expression for the most impact.

Do you understand BPM’s take?  If so, here is a takeaway for you.

BPM TAKEAWAY#3:

  • MANAGE THE BRAND

  • SPEAK LESS – SAY MORE

 

Other Related Links:  Brand Discussion at SXSW

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Takeaway #15: Walking the Talk

       “Cause we are strictly business and we also got our pride

And if you don’t like it, I suggest you break wide

Suckers steady looking for the m-o-n-e-y and

Thinking that illegal is the best way, so they dying

I ain’t got time to see a fiend fiend out

To give up all his money, and he giving what he got

That’s the way I am, MC Breed cannot be different

Never change my ways for the world or the government“

 MC Breed & DFC  Ain’t No Future In Yo’ Frontin’ (1995)

Over a decade before we heralded the return of the Motor-City (and its  how-we-do culture), Breed and DFC put Michigan on the Hip-Hop map, but also provided touchstones for walking-the-talk.  You have to be able to walk away from a deal and keep your “pride.”  This ability is critical to make sure that you stay on mission statement and within the organization’s core competency.  You have to let people “break wide if they do not fit in your game plan.  It is synonymous with the old maxim that you have to stand for something or else you will fall for anything.

 Recognize, however, that you cannot change your fundamental DNA as an organization.  You can expand and recast your brand, but you cannot completely change the essence.  If you are a car maker, you will always be a car maker.  You may change the style or the type of cars you make.  You may target different demographics but you will still do that fundamental thing.  You can be a friendly manager or a difficult manager, but you are the manager, don’t become the customer – just satisfy the customer’s needs, by walking-the-talk.

 BPM TAKEAWAY#15:

  • DON’T BE AFRAID TO WALK ON THE DEAL

  • DON’T DILUTE THE BRAND

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Takeaway #189: Credible Threat?

      “…She need to get a, piece of the American pie and take her bite out

That’s my house, I’ll disconnect the cable and turn the lights out

… see I ain’t the one who laid down

She wanna … start a … war, my lawyers stay down“

Outkast   (Ms. Jackson from Stankonia)

Takeaway #189:  An unfortunate domestic situation – BPM prefers to look at the enterprise implications today.  Litigation, war, and ultimate sacrifice have their place in corporate success.   Sun Tzu and Machiavelli have covered the ground on this one.  One point:    If a matter goes to the core of operations, there must be a willingness to “bet the firm” if it is truly essential- or at least have it perceived to be an option.  Your competitors and you must believe that all options are on the table.  This is a rare event – but a credible threat is a valuable deterrent.

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