I read a book by Jari Sarasvuo who is a former journalist, nowadays a chairman of a board in his consultancy company in Finland. This book was named Huomiotalous or freely translated as the Economy of attention, He wrote this book after he did a Finnish version of tv series The Apprentice. He wasn't as evil as Donalp Trumph but he really made people mad with his opinions and thoughts during it was seen on tv.

Because Jari Sarasvuo has his background in marketing, sales and business consultancy the book gives some useful tips for better business and marketing. Some of the thoughts are a bit weird for me but I made some nice notes while I was reading it. At first mr. Sarasvuo described what he means with his new economy thoughts. He concluded that you need three dimensions to be successful in your business career: 1. attention, 2. importance and 3. credibility (source Alexander Bard). If you are in charge of a company you need your emplyees' attention, your customers' attention and also some attention around your living area. When you have the attention you must show your importance and you must have credibility in your doings. Sarasvuo made a short timeline of different phases in history where he started from hunters and collectors (important things were luck and the power of strongest existed), farmers (working hard was the name of life) and factory builders and workers (you should had have know-how, expertise and special technology). Nowadays we are living in a society of story tellers and your biggest demand is for attention. This may be very true because every company now tell their stories in new product launches, they try to attract customers in different ways and if you don't have a good (or bad) story to tell, you are nobody. It's a question of reputation, the size of your audience and the amount of positive sound you get – how many people do you attract on.

One thought I found very interesting was the marketing strategy. Sarasvuo had learned it during an event with Jay Abraham. Most companies concentrate on 9 % of customers: those who are decided already or maybe will decide to buy a certain product. Instead of taking a look on the other 91 % whose desiration to buy you should be involved in. Usually you get negative thoughts when you try to sell something for cold customers but in a way you build trust and willingness, you are able to make even bigger sales in figures. I worked as a salesman in a grocery store during my studies but I wasn't selling milk or fruits but I tried to get people to participate in a short lottery. During the time we filled a form with a potential customer, I made a quick purchasing requirement analysis on their mobile or broadband connections and maybe could start a discussion on a new mobile phone or basic connections. The idea was brilliant because people where surprised and not intented to buy a new phone or anything else from me when they came to a store to buy some beer or other necesities.

Another nice idea was told on company strategies. I especially liked Sarasvuo's opinion that strategy should be so simple that your employees understand it easily, your customers understand it also and finally a big audience understands it clearly. He didn't write it this straight forward but in my opinion a good strategy may be your slogan or a punch line of your advertisement. This made me thinking about airlines. They have different customer messages and also strategies but they usually fail when their service comes to reality. For example Finnair has a slogan ”Designed for you” and I always keep thinking does this mean that a small meal (or only a cup of coffee) and a stricktly regulated drinking service or not so convenient service (you have to buy a newspaper in economy class even in long haul flights) is my desired design, the good design in airline services. On the other hand Cathay Pacific's slogan is ”People they make an airline”. I'm delighted to say that this slogan comes true every time when I fly with Cathay Pacific airlines. The way this slogan gets in reality (good service, nice people, attention to every customer's needs) really works. To my mind this strategy or slogan is valuable also to people who work for Cathay Pacific. It's so simple! The power of their doing has been shown also many times in honors and awards. A good strategy has to be brightened, understood, interpreted, wanted, done and also in practice worked fine, as Sarasvuo concludes.

I liked a certain sentence in this book which is very important to keep in mind in these days of suffer and bad economic situation: ”The work will arise when entrepreneuers and companies have more belief in their vision than time and energy to make it happen”. Sarasvuo thinks that many directors exist that have this title in their business cards but they really don't direct and manage people or tasks. If it's only a word, it doesn't become true and lively.

A person has some capabilities, beliefs, visions and ability to sell it to others. This means that we need 3 things to make miracles come true: 1. a space for a problem, 2. a space for a solution and 3. a space for people. After Sarasvuo's idealogy this is a mystery of growth. Basicly it means that we have to work harder to get problems solved and in the end a positive cash flow will arise. He also draw a picture of management where in the other side is love and in the other is brave, between these two the best managers and directors do their miracles to make good things happen and lead the people. This wasn't his own though (of course a little bit enriched) but came from Cristina Andersson. Between the brave and the love learning and execution exist and between the cycles of these two components is so called limination spaces.