Lots of industries are becoming saturated with competitors, to the point where they’re becoming commoditized. My own industry, cloud storage, is a great example. The consumer or business looking for online storage now versus even one or two years ago can be paralyzed by options. As a startup that operates within this ecosystem, you’d think I’d be up all night.

I’m not.

A funny thing happens when an industry that was once nascent becomes the next big thing: Everyone thinks they can do your job. Goliath competitors get in the game. But it doesn’t signal the end for startups, despite popular belief. It’s a renaissance, a period of both rebirth and adaptation.

A week or so ago, I was listening to a piece on NPR about the democratization of air travel, and airlines’ non-responsiveness to travelers’ woes. Essentially, a few relative newcomer airlines like Virgin America (with its Red in-flight concierge) and Southwest (with fee-free baggage) have seen an opportunity to reinvent the experience of air travel, capitalizing on the frustrated passengers incumbent airlines have left in their wake (or prop-wash, if we’re going there). They took on Goliath airlines and are winning by being responsive, rather than just sticking to “the way it’s always been.” Sure, a lot of processes are still quite flawed, but these are baby steps in the right direction.

Responsiveness to change is the number one advantage startups have over larger incumbents. The inertia required to get momentum started in a large company is often too great. Taking it back to high school physics, a body at rest tends to stay at rest. It sounds so simple, yet so few companies take time to adapt their product to deal head-on with what the public really wants. If every airline took this to heart, a lot more traveler gripes might be resolved, processes would be streamlined, and the whole experience of flying in general could be improved.

I’ve thought about this a lot, as more and more large companies creep into our territory every day. As Mark Suster says in this piece about what to do when a big company tries to eat your lunch, don’t be naive enough to think that a “big, dumb company” is trying to take over your territory. These companies certainly didn’t become big by being dumb. Just realize that your smaller stature makes you much faster and more nimble than them. In no area is this more evident than responsiveness.

It’s not always easy to turn on a dime, but it’s certainly worth it to adapt your product to what your customers are requesting. This customer-focused approach helps startups build something that’s grounded in what people actually want to use every day. It might take some time to rework what you’ve got, but I assure you it will be worth it when the volume of people using your product or service increases and word of mouth lights up your company like wildfire.

For startups and large companies competing in crowded industries, there will surely be a “survival of the fittest” epic battle playing out for everyone to see. As I’ve written in the past about “frenemies,” you don’t always have to compete to the death to win in the startup game. You just have to be smart enough to know when and how to adapt. Here’s to a 2012 of adaptation and rebirth of industries people have written off as commoditized. My bet is that we’ll see a lot of innovation in these areas we never even expected as people fight to not only survive, but thrive.

For more leadership coverage, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

[Image: Flickr user Frank Vassen]

A lot is going to be demanded of business leaders in 2012 due to fast-changing social technology that is remaking the business landscape in the midst of a tough economy. To ensure that you’re one of the success stories of 2012, you need to start with the right mindset, focus, and goals. To that end, here are 10 resolutions to get you off to the right start.

1. Recognize and respond to the reality that Facebook, Google, and Twitter are the NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox of the future.

2. Inspire and demonstrate rigor in the articulation of your brand purpose to create the emotional connection with your customers that will drive their social media engagement.

3. Explore and integrate how to offer your customers greater authenticity, transparency, and accountability to increase their loyalty and your profitability.

4. Interrogate and embrace how your brand can become more human, interacting with customers in a way that captures their attention, commands their interest, and inspires their loyalty.

5. Monitor and maintain the wide breadth of networks, platforms, and channels through which to bring your brand to life using a variety of media including text, video, photos, and podcasts.

6. Deeply accept and respond to the fact that your customers are increasingly driving your content distribution through their personal social media channels.

7. Identify and respond to the power of F-commerce (Facebook commerce) by expanding your e-commerce presence on the network.

8. Explore and act on what your brand and business will look like if it only lives in a smartphone in your customer’s hand.

9. Play with and apply the gamification of your product and service offerings, including rewards and incentives for customer engagement, loyalty, and sharing.

10. Internalize the fact that control of your brand must now be shared with your customers and offer them the personal attention, professional respect, and authentic interest appropriate to business partners.

These 10 resolutions are critical to the mind shift that must occur about how your brand, community, and profits are built, maintained, and expanded. They need to be adopted company-wide and will necessitate changes in company structure and roles. The upside is that such efforts will pay enormous dividends when the power of storytelling and the scalability of social media combine to generate brand awareness, customer loyalty, and offline, online, social, and mobile commerce.

For a concrete, actionable Social Branding Blueprint for how to do this for your business, join us at the We First Social Branding Seminar in Los Angeles on February 1-2. You’ll get an extra ticket to invite your favorite nonprofit for free and world-class expertise focused on building your success blueprint for 2012. Places are limited and time is running out, so register now to put today’s market forces and social technology to work for you.

Follow @FastCoLeaders for all of our leadership news, expert bloggers, and book excerpts.

Reprinted with permission from SimonMainwaring.com

Simon Mainwaring is a branding consultant, advertising creative director, blogger, speaker, and author of the recently released We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World. A former Nike creative at Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, and worldwide creative director for Motorola at Ogilvy, he now consults for brands and creative companies that are re-inventing their industries and enabling positive change. Follow him at SimonMainwaring.com or on Twitter @SimonMainwaring.

[Top image: Flickr user Ludie Cochrane; thumbnail image: Flickr user lisaschafferphoto]

With "Justice League" No. 1 selling 361,138 copies, it's on top during a year of growth for the comic book industry. DC Comics copublishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee talked to Fast Company about what was then considered a risky relaunch.

In September, DC Comics took what many deemed a risky move and ended decades of history and scrapped its entire comic book line. The company restarted with 52 books and immediately saw revitalized sales. The company has confirmed just how well the relaunch strategy worked: The top three best-selling comic books of 2011 all came from that relaunch, Justice League no. 1, Batman no. 1, and Action Comics no. 1. These relaunch sales contributed to the comic book industry having its first year of growth after four years of declines.

Fast Company interviewed DC Comics copublishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee about the relaunch and its sales success:

[twistage 9c72d6cd378ef]

Follow the author (@khohannessian) or Fast Company on Twitter.

This year the tablet industry is going to get interesting, gnarly even, because as the market matures a bunch of very smart power plays will happen. It starts with Google.

We know Google's been working on Android in an attempt to polish a version that really is designed to embrace the larger screens that tablet PCs offer over smartphones. We also know that Android 4.0, the product of this work, is a gentle attempt to claw back some of the problems of platform fragmentation (recent news confirming this). Android 4.0 will be married to some of the newer, more powerful tablet PCs coming from manufacturers like Samsung, and it may be the first serious competitor to Apple's iOS on the iPad--something that's not really existed until now, in terms of smooth user experience, power, and optimized use of screen real estate. 

Then we heard rumors that Google was prepping its own tablet PC that would carry the Google brand, perhaps in a similar way to the Nexus line of Android smartphones. The Nexus phones have't exactly stolen the limelight, though, because the Android smartphone market is cluttered and Samsung is doing a good job of competing with Apple (largely by copying it, some may say) and selling devices. It's possible a Google tablet could succeed, because there's no lead competitor to the iPad yet.

A newer rumor still offers hints at a 7-inch device of the "highest quality," according to Google's Eric Schmidt, and it's said to fall below $199 in price. It could devastate the Kindle Fire in two important respects. First, it's slightly cheaper. Second, it's got the words "Don't Panic" inscribed on its cover in large, friendly letters. We kid: Actually while the Kindle Fire has seen Amazon bury all signs of normal Android beneath a completely Amazon-centric UI designed to funnel only Amazon book, music, and video content to the end user, Google's tablet will be quintessentially Android 4.0--and thus full-featured. Remember how consumers shied away from netbooks when they realized they were cloistered, non-full-featured laptops? The same risk is what Amazon's exposed to here, now that the tablet paradigm is well established.

Speaking of the Fire, analyst Tavis McCourt of stockbrokers Morgan Keenan has just courted controversy by actually lowering his predictions for the fourth quarter iPad sales figures of 2011 to 13 million from 16 million. It is, McCourt attests, a direct reaction to predictions about sales of the Kindle Fire over the holiday period--sales which may have reached between four and five million units. In McCourt's mind this will have directly compromised iPad sales, as there's only so much money to go round.

Evidently this is a money man holding his wet finger to the wind--a mythical total--and adjusting his earlier predictions based on what he says he senses in the technology-sales breeze. And as we've noted before, analysts seem to be confounded by the simplest moves of Apple. McCourt's analysis also flies in the face of some predictions and statistics that support continued strong iPad sales over the holiday period: Before it arrived some slightly more grounded predictions, based on a deeper insight into the industry, suggested that while the Fire and Nook devices would sell well at Christmas, they'd not really threaten Apple. 7% of purchases made online on Christmas day actually happened by users dabbing at the screen of their iPad--a massive figure that underlines the iPad's dominance of the market.

But McCourt's moves are a sign that the Amazon tablet really has made a splash in the marketplace, and if rumors that Amazon is moving to release a new and updated Fire sooner rather than later prove true, then Amazon will certainly consolidate its position.

And then finally there's Apple. Rumors about the iPad 3 are swirling faster than ever--merely because the device is expected to get its public reveal toward the end of January. The iPad 3 is said to be a radical departure from the earlier iPad design, which is already iconic, sporting a high-resolution "retina"-level display that beats most laptop screens and new IGZO display tech which is better even than the IPS system Apple touted as one of the original break-out iPad features. With faster processors, much improved cameras (possibly a 5 megapixel autofocus one) and what's said to be significantly better battery life, the iPad 3 is likely to set a completely new high bar for the fledgling tablet game, and truly defeat naysayers who suggest tablets aren't full-featured machines suitable for content creation or purposes like high-end gaming. If Apple keeps it pinned at the $499 price point at the low level, it's certain to sell by the millions.

But it's not the iPad 3 that's likely to be Apple's smartest move in the tablet game. Many a rumor is now suggesting that Apple will keep the iPad 2 in production and on sale, but at a lower price. This is borrowing from the incredible success of the iPhone 3GS, still on sale at bargain prices and selling hand over fist. The figure being mentioned for the new iPad 2 is $299--an amount that will seriously threaten the Kindle Fire because it's just a few bucks more, for what's evidently a better machine and one that's got much more potential and cachet. If Apple really does embrace the 7-inch genre, as other more rarified rumors suggest, then this could even come in below the $299 price, and challenge the upcoming Google tablet.

So banish any thoughts that the tablet game is going to be boring this year. Considering how stagnant the PC market has got, and how samey the smartphone business is becoming, it may even prove to be one of the most exciting consumer tech battlegrounds. Oh, and if you're pondering a tablet purchase--even in the sales, or with Sony and RIM knocking many dollars off their prices--it may be best to hold off for a couple of months.

Related Story: The Great Tech War Of 2012

[Top Image: Flickr user Thomas Levinson, Thumbnail: Flickr user Benjamin Ellis]

Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.

Old paradigms die hard. I was reminded of that recently when talking to PR guru, author, and consultant David Meerman Scott, who more than anyone has helped PR evolve in the 21st century.

While everyone’s business has been forced to change in this 24/7 always-on, mobile world, we as PR practioners (and here I am as guilty as anyone) still tend to release news according to our schedule and timing, not that of the media. Like gladhanding politicians, we knock on journalists’ virtual door fronts with our campaign literature (that is news releases) in hand, asking the media to endorse us by writing our story--not their story.

Scott asks a simple but insightful question: What if you reverse the equation, and instead of reaching out to journalists on your schedule, get them to find you? Fortunately, digital devices, including mobile, have made it easy for reporters to find sources. And that source might as well be you. One of the best ways to do that is to mash up mobile with social media to concoct a timely, enticing brew that will be quaffed by journalists. Or as Scott call it, you can “newsjack," commenting on a breaking story in a way that journalists will find you.

“It’s really a matter of understanding that we live in a 24-hour real time world,” says Scott. “Reporters can be working at home, on the road, on their iPhone when they are at a baseball game. You can reach them any time. You need to create content optimized for their devices so  that reporters will find that when they are writing a story.”

Here are 5 ways Scott recommends doing just that:

And since no list is complete without at least one “NOT to DO, here is one caveat:

·         Don’t use all the new technology as an invitation to spam reporters on their mobile phone or Twitter feed. Don’t send an uninvited text message. That will only backfire.

The bottom line is that PR practitioners need to be as nimble and quick as a reporter or blogger on deadline and be anywhere they are likely to find you--on mobile, on social media, on a blog, on video. All you need to do is seize the opportunity.

--Wendy Marx, B2B PR and Marketing Specialist, Marx Communications

[Image: Flickr user Kheel Center, Cornell University]

Breaking news from your editors at Fast Company, with updates all day.

Samsung's Q4 Profits Soar On Smarphone Sales. Samsung posted a quarterly profit of $4.5 billion, thanks in no small part to its success in smarphone sales. In Q3, the company passed Apple to become the largest smarphone supplier, and is expected to ship 170 million smartphones in 2012. --NS

--Updated 8:00 a.m. EST

Ford Is Building A Research Center In Silicon Valley. Cars aren't the zippiest adopters of new mobile tech, but at least one company is taking serious steps to get a move on innovation. Ford has announced that it is building a research facility in Silicon Valley, with the goal of establishing deeper relationships with technology innovators in the San Francisco Bay Area, and supplement work happening at their existing labs in Dearborn, MI. The lab will open in the first quarter of 2012. --NS

--Updated 7:45 a.m. EST

HTC's Profits Slip. HTC is Asia's second largest smartphone maker, so when it reports a net income slip of 26% versus last year for the fourth quarter--which should be boosted by holiday season sales--the industry sits up and takes note. Analysts are suggesting tough competition at the high end from Apple and Samsung is to blame, and it's worth noting that HTC makes many low to mid-level Android smartphones. --KE

--Updated 7:15 a.m. EST

Iran Clamps Down On Internet Use. Iran's Cyber Police have issued a new set of rules for Web use in the country, in a bid to gain even more control on information access and sharing, the Wall Street Journal reports. Among the new measures taking effect, VPN access to secure networks outside the country have been cut off, and Internet cafes have been given 15 days to install security cameras and take steps to collect personal information and monitor their customers' browsing habits. --NS

45,000 Facebook Log-ins Stolen By Worm. Log-ins on several thousand European Facebook accounts have been chewed through by a security threat called the "Ramnit" worm, Secualert has found. The data stealing malware was first identified chasing bank accounts for financial details in April 2010, but has diversified its diet to include Facbeook security. --NS

NASA's Open-Source Website Is Now Up. NASA is inviting the collective enthusiasm and skills of the Web to participate in select projects. They've listed a first crop of open source projects that space-enthusiast programmers can work on and contribute to from their desks at home, on Earth. --NS

Study: iPhone 4S Is A Data Hog. According to a new report, Apple's new iPhone and features (while lovely) means that on average, it uses double the amount of data as the iPhone 4, and three times as much as the iPhone 3G. Or perhaps, more properly, its users access more data using these phones versus earlier ones. In part, this is due to the smarphones new clever, quirky, data-hungry personal assistant, Siri. --NS

--Updated 5:30 a.m. EST

[Image: Flickr user NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center]

Yesterday's Fast Feed: AP And New York Times Launch NewsRight, DHS Announces Media Surveillance Program, Walmart Buys iOS Developer Small Society, and more!

Drones on Titan

Titan, a moon of Saturn, is mysterious and fascinating to us: Its cloudly atmosphere and slushy liquid-methane surface is a true glimpse into an alien world, and it's not too far away. We've briefly explored its atmosphere and its odd chemical-soaked surface, but now a team of scientists have proposed a very ambitious robotic exploration plan to thoroughly investigate Titan's secrets. The 30-strong group of boffins have put together the designs for a project called AVIATR that's breathtaking in scope: Making the most of the low gravity and super-dense atmosphere, AVIATR would be an aircraft that would soar through the clouds, scanning the atmosphere and the terrain below. 

Powered by a radiothermal powerplant, AVIATR could (assuming it could withstand the harsh environment) spend a much longer time on mission than the brief moments we've managed so far with the Huygens mission--loitering over areas of interest and performing more in-depth research, or roaming the skies under its own robotic command and identifying unusual features such as surface lakes, mountains, or dramatic wind zones. The 120-kilo machine would define a whole new paradigm in robotic planetary exploration, and there's a lot of interest in the idea...with just one drawback, it'll take decades to get it floating through Titan's hydrocarbon clouds.

Robot App Stores

App stores are popping up everywhere for all sorts of devices from your MP3 player to your wristwatch. But soon robots will be getting in on the app store game too. In just a couple of weeks the Robot App Store will hit, with a model a little like Apple's: Apps have to be submitted by developers, then approved before they appear in the store catalog. At launch about 500 apps are expected to be available, penned by around 200 registered developers ready to improve your personal robot's powers to do everything from navigating better to kicking a ball more accurately.

The idea is to collate the thinking about tweaking and improving some of the growing number of home-use or educational programmable robots that are coming onto the market. By placing all the apps in one place, it's even possible that wholly new ideas will be inspired by the app market itself--and it'll offer developers the chance to earn a little cash from what may be an industry about to bloom.

Qbos Flirt

Qbo, the cutest little educational bot you ever did see, has already been given the ability to identify itself in a mirror--for now it's a trick, but it does hint at a near future where robot identity may become a legal issue all by itself. But now developers at The Corpora have enhanced Qbo's ability to identify robots and let it recognize another robot like itself...but that's not its own image in a mirror. The process involves a couple of visual cues to help it realize it's looking at a different bot, and the upshot is a sweet bit of interactivity.

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As the guys at Automaton point out, this isn't an example of a self-aware robot interacting with another similar device, and conducting a Turing-test-defeating chat that proves they have a degree of consciousness. It's really a simple bit of programming. But like the earlier mirror-image experiment, it prompts us to think about a future when robots loaded with information about you are meeting each other and interacting...with all the legal, privacy, and security issues that'll ensue.

Automated Kitty Sitter

Telepresence is an idea more usually associated with remote workers dialing in to an office-roaming robot, or doctors and nurses visiting patients at their bedside, even if that bedside's on the other side of the world. But it's evidently an idea ripe for innovation, and Taylor Veltrop has taken a Nao development robot, a Kinect, two Wiimotes, some clever programming, and an unusually helpful kitty and hacked together a telepresence cat-stroker. For those moments when you're away from home, and you want to give the cat some affection--at the fingertips of a diminutive droid.

[youtube pxoL4bnLp0g]

Hmmm. My cat freaks out when the Roomba starts to patrol the floors, so I'm not convinced what she'd do if a tiny humanoid strolled toward her with plastic digits out-stretched, but I suppose your cat's mileage may vary. More importantly, this home-brewed effort was achieved with off-the shelf parts, offers an impressively "immersive" telepresence experience for the user (if not the cat), and it hints at a thousand as yet unimagined telepresence innovations to come.

Leaping Lizards

UC Berkeley scientists have taken inspiration for their biomimetic robot from a slightly unusual source, one that perhaps a chap like Stephen Spielberg would be more familiar with: The velociraptor, or more properly its modern descendant--the lizard. Some dinosaurs and lizards have one thing that could benefit robots, you see: A powerful muscular tail. 

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When you're designing a search and rescue robot for extreme environments--perhaps a mountain rescue machine--a robotic tail could combine with on-board motion sensors to keep the bot sure-footed on tricky terrain and even maintain its orientation in the air after a jump to ensure a good landing, as demonstrated in the video. It's yet another example of taking a solution that Mother Nature's been refining since the age of the dinosaur and adapting it for an artificial device.

Japan's Robofarm

What do you do with a decimated landscape that's been polluted, wiped clean of human structures by a natural disaster, and left in a tricky state for humans to work in? The answer, according to Japanese officials, is to start a project to open robot-assisted farms in the region. Miyagi prefecture is the targeted zone, one of the three worst-affected areas in the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear incident that befell Japan in early 2011. Some 59,000 acres of farmland were impacted by the disaster, and local farmers are struggling to deal with the after-effects as well as trying to re-establish a healthy farming ecosystem.

Hence the government's project, which ropes in robotics expertise from companies like Panasonic and Hitachi, to assist farmers with robot tractors, produce packers, and which also involves a clever CO2 recycling project to try to reduce the demand for other fertilizers. It's a six-year project with an initial investment of around four billion yen ($51 million).

Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.

Each year begins for technologists and geeks with the annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for CES. It's easy to write off this massive technology trade show as an outdated, overrated, and overhyped gizmo-fest. But I think it's incredibly valuable, and often results in real marketplace knowledge ahead of the curve.

That said, I go into CES each year with some insights and some crystal ball gazing that often helps me focus on what I'm expecting to see. This year, 2012 CES has a handful of trends that will impact media, content creators, and devices.

Here are FIVE CES PREDICTIONS you can expect to see come true in Las Vegas this year. TVs get sexy. Expect Samsung, Vizio, Panasonic, Sony, and more to come out with sleeker, brighter, more awesome screens. A related new technology called 4K is expected to greatly improve image resolutions. While it's still early on, there will be some new voice control gizmos trying to get a jump on the Siri TV product that Apple is rumored to have on its way to market. However, as always, no Apple at CES. Last year the big buzz was 3-D on the heels of Avatar. But the glasses were expensive and proprietary to the set manufacturer, which kept customers away. Expect a new batch of passive 3-D glasses that are cheap (like the ones in the movie theaters) and interchangeable from set to set. LG is planning to offer 4K HDTVs that include passive 3-D technology. TVs with 4K resolution will be able to deliver full HD resolution with the passive 3-D. Maybe 3-D will break out this year? Could be. Game platforms vie for dominance. Nintendo and Xbox both promise new home-media friendly devices that will put them even deeper into the battle for living room dominance. Expect more improvements with Microsoft Kinect as a device-control interface for your home TV.

The year of the app. There's huge jump in the number of web-connected TVs shipping this year, from 60 million last year up to 80 million this year. And Adobe has come out swinging, saying it wants to be the dominant provider of technology in the new world of app-centric viewing.

The cable-cutting dilemma.  While the buzz on cable cutting has been huge, the reality of life without cable TV has proven to be a bit of a programming minefield. This CES will see a series of shifts in the space, with Boxee shifting from a computer-centric model to a hardware+software solution. Roku will continue to build a base, with content deals and its new "Streaming Stick" looking to grow its 2.5 million customer user-base.  Tivo's offerings or new gizmos are under wraps (or nonexistent) this year. But the dark-horse candidate for most disruptive new technology may come from a small company, Syncbak. Syncbak founder Jack Perry is no stranger to Web TV, having launched TitanTV.com at CES back in 2000. Perry says the big guys have it all wrong, and that web video isn't about search. Instead, he says, "content should search for consumers."

"We're taking broadcasters OTT in less than 5 minutes at no cost," Perry told me. He claims 50 TV stations reaching 22 million households have been testing the technology over the past year. Syncbak says Spokane, Wash., will launch in January with several TV stations. They'll use Syncbak to distribute live broadcasts to viewers' mobile devices. The app will also include two national broadcast channels (but Syncbak won't reveal who they are).

And in non-TV-related news, laptops will make way for Ultrabooks. Mobile computing will get lighter and thinner as Ultrabook manufactures like Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, HP, and others hustle to catch up with Apple's popular Macbook Air product line. Intel is driving the Ultrabook push, but it won't be till Windows 8 shows up that you'll see really snappy performance. So, Apple still has a running head start. Oh, did I mention that there's no Apple booth at CES? Yet their impact is everywhere. 

Expect CES 2012 to be a hotbed of disruptive technologies, changing screens and devices, and programmers looking to protect their existing revenues while getting a piece of the future.

Good times in Vegas, if you're willing to place a bet or two.

For more leadership coverage, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

[Image provided by Shutterstock]

The Chinese government has dreamed for years of creating an English-language news network that could successfully compete with CNN or Al Jazeera for global eyeballs. The TodayChina network is China's third attempt to start a BBC of its own. Will the third time be the charm?

The Chinese government has dreamed for years of launching an English-language news network that could successfully compete with CNN or Al Jazeera for global eyeballs. Yesterday, Chinese government officials announced the launch of a new network, TodayChina, to debut in February. This will be China's third attempt to start a BBC of its own. Will the third time be the charm?

TodayChina will be initially available to viewers in New York, Beijing, and Hong Kong. As of this writing, it was unclear whether the network has obtained a channel slot from local providers Time Warner, Cablevision, or Verizon FiOS. Another Chinese state-operated news network, CCTV News, already airs in New York and much of the United States. However, CCTV News has been hampered by cultural translation issues and a microscopic advertising budget. A second China-based news network, CNC World, is operated by the state Xinhua news agency and appears on a modest amount of American cable and satellite systems.

According to Bloomberg, the network will air news and entertainment programming in English and Chinese. TodayChina will be operated by a public-private partnership between china.com.cn (the Chinese government's official web portal and Internet content outfit) and private firm CMMB Holdings. CMMB's main business is developing technology that allows mobile smartphones and vehicles to receive UHF television signal--this may indicate why the Chinese government is interested in yet another English-language news station. Mobile television is poised to become a big business in 2012 and 2013, and the launch allows China to have an early presence.

The 24-hour English-language news network is the holy grail for foreign governments, as it allows them to reach--and influence--hearts and minds, with large financial and political implications. The British government operates BBC World, the Qatari government subsidizes Al Jazeera English, Iran operates their Press TV, France broadcasts France 24, and Russia has the state funded and operated RT. These networks all operate with varying degrees of autonomy from their sponsor governments. While Al Jazeera and the BBC operate more or less independently, Press TV shamelessly echoes Iranian government talking points. RT, meanwhile, opts for gonzo publicity stunts and an eclectic programming schedule that embraces American conspiracy theorists and Russian pop culture.

Kim Andrew Elliott, an audience research analyst for the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau, tells Fast Company that “for China's and other foreign 24-hour channels, it's difficult to get carriage on cable systems and DTH satellite services. This forces most people to watch the channel via a website--still a somewhat clunky process compared to cable and satellite. Even if reception problems are resolved, content remains an issue. If the Chinese channels want to be competitive as providers of global news, they will have to compete with the big three: CNN International, BBC World News, and Al Jazeera English."

That won't be easy, says Andrew Elliott. "This would require a formidable worldwide network of correspondents, and journalistic independence. The Chinese channels are working to develop the former, but the latter still seems out of reach. Also, the division of resources between CCTV News and CNC World is probably not helpful.”

The biggest problem China has in dealing with in their 24-hour news network problems is the sprawling nature of the Chinese government. International broadcasting is handled through a number of governmental and quasi-government agencies; CCTV is a product of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, while CNC World is operated by the state-affiliated Xinhua news agencies. Both networks frequently make errors in Chinese-English translation, broadcast material that appears odd in a Western context, and air programming with frequently shoddy production values. However, Philip Seib, an expert on digital diplomacy at the University of Southern California, notes that China has recently put an increased emphasis on foreign news broadcasting. But at the same time, there's no one central Chinese English-language news network--all these state-operated networks are cannibalizing the same (small) market share.

China's announcement comes shortly after President Hu Jintao wrote a controversial essay calling for a “culture war” with the West. The essay, published on January 1, calls for China to develop a pop culture of its own that can be exported across borders.

For now, TodayChina and the other English-language Chinese news networks appear to be less about winning foreign viewership and more about retaining the massive Chinese diaspora. Programming continues to be in a mix of Chinese and English. A minuscule advertising budget means most Westerners are unaware CCTV and CNC World are even aired on most cable networks. None of the networks have the budget or editorial autonomy necessary to produce quality content on par with Al Jazeera or the BBC. If China really does want foreign viewers to see Chinese-produced news programming, they have a long way to go.

For more stories like this, follow @fastcompany on Twitter. Email Neal Ungerleider, the author of this article, here or find him on Twitter and Google+.

[Top Image: Flickr user familywmr, Main Image: The Library of Congress]

Today’s economy is certainly lousy, but you might as well get used to it. Some financial experts think the de-leveraging process we’re now going through might last for another decade or two, with interest rates near zero for years to come. Ugh.

Commerce will still take place, however, and the most competitively successful companies can still prosper. But getting a prospective business customer to say “yes” when his own economic world has deteriorated so much requires a deft and nuanced sales effort. So if you sell to business customers, here are seven suggestions for improving your competitive chances:

1. Don't go for everything at once. When trying to win over a potential new customer, settle for a phone call simply to make voice contact first, and then try to find a reason for a face-to-face meeting. Then another one. And another. A bad economy makes trust more important than ever, as I said a few months ago in a post about selling to consumers in a tough economy, and nothing will inspire trust faster than simple familiarity and friendship. You don’t have to land the account before working to increase the trust your prospect has in you.

2. Be prepared for long delays, punctuated by sudden activity. In case you haven’t noticed, the slack economy has led to hesitant and tentative business planning. No one is rushing to judgment any more. Companies are staying flexible and putting off spending to the very last minute. Even when they agree internally on the urgent need for a project or an initiative--something you could perhaps help them with--they won’t make a final decision until the very last minute, in order to conserve cash. It’s impossible to rush the process, and if you want to win the account you still have to be there when they’re ready. It will be a constant hurry-up-and-wait cycle, but sooner or later projects will happen, and spending will occur. So be there. Always.

3. Use social networking to find a friend--or a friend of a friend--who knows your prospect. Businesses are all different, with different operating styles, planning horizons, and cultures. And the executives and decision-makers within every business are unique human beings, with their own needs, preferences, and biases. The more insight you have about your prospect, the more likely it is you’ll be able to tailor your message appropriately. And having an introduction can’t hurt either, when you can get one. Obviously, your first step will be Googling all the names and searching the web. But a very important second step will be to find someone, somewhere, who actually knows someone useful at the prospect company. A Facebook study last May showed that active Facebook users are connected with other active users by just 3.74 degrees of separation, on average. That’s worldwide, from Boeing to Best Buy and China to Chicago. LinkedIn and other e-social networks probably have similar characteristics. So an executive somewhere on your team almost certainly has a friend who has a friend who knows an executive on your prospect’s team. Find that connection, and remember there may be several.

4. Make an offer your prospect can't refuse. In order to generate a phone call or a meeting, you have to offer the prospect something of value, in a way that he can’t turn down without seeming…rude. It could be the interesting results of a survey or some piece of research, or perhaps a competitive overview. Whatever you offer should be curiosity-arousing, and it should cost the prospect minimal time or effort. You should make it available on any schedule the prospect wants, and at whatever location the prospect prefers. It should be detailed enough to be interesting and useful to your prospect, but not so detailed as to enable the client to initiate completely without you. And it should be free. Keep asking yourself: If you were the prospect, why wouldn’t you want to see this information or learn this new thing, in order to do business more effectively? Then eliminate all those obstacles.

5. Never ever call to confirm a sales meeting, once it’s been set up. No matter how much planning you’ve done, if you call to confirm in advance there’s a very good chance the client will cancel or (more likely) put off the meeting. Better just to get there when and as you both agreed. Think about it: What’s the worst that could happen if the prospect forgets your meeting? It will give you a small debt to collect, another chip to use in your steady quest to earn this customer’s trust. Of course you understand, very sorry, maybe next time…

6. Always have a next step in mind that can be agreed to instantly. When and if you have the opportunity to get someone's attention in a phone conversation, be around the corner, down the street, or even downstairs in the same building, if possible (I’ve done this more than once). If you want a face-to-face meeting with a potential client, then try to figure out how to be at the right geographic location for it, right now, because while a prospect will often be reluctant to put a formal meeting on the schedule, if you can literally be there in 10 minutes, she might just agree to a quick meeting on impulse.

7. Once you win some business, be sure to follow up for more. One of the biggest mistakes almost every company makes when it goes to great lengths to bring in a new client--and believe me, we see this over and over--is not to expose the client to other divisions, services, or products within the company. So make sure your sales staff are incentivized to broaden your firm’s exposure to a brand-new client. You want them looking for other, often unrelated opportunities, and involving all the other “silos” at your company. Do this well, and pretty soon your business units won’t even consider themselves silos any more.

Winning business clients in an economy as challenging as this requires skill, patience, and a more deliberate sales effort. But even in the most terrible economy imaginable, some companies will be selling more successfully than others. That could be you.

For more leadership coverage, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

[Image: Flickr user Hartwig HKD]

Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) was a true Renaissance man, distinguishing himself as an author, artist, poet, architect, and philosopher. Probably sometime in the 1430s, Alberti wrote “De commodis litterarum atque incommodes” (The Use and Abuse of Books), in which he extols the virtue of scholarship. In this work, Alberti also provided insightful commentary and life advice to scholars about marriage, choosing a profession, the state of education, and a number of other contemporary topics.

Alberti’s 700-year-old commentary on life sounds surprisingly modern. So, from the “there is nothing new under the sun” department, here are some of Alberti’s astute life observations for today’s scholars of the art of living.

On Choosing a Wife

“I advise any poor man to avoid marriage with a poor woman, for that is the ultimate evil.”

“I warn him not to desire a young female, for youth is an age unfavorable to scholars and offers them little security…I know what I am talking about.”

“Choose some little elderly widow, then, who is less likely to look down on you than other women.”

“If I seem to be joking in this discourse about matrimonial matters, just call to mind the wives of learned men you know, consider their ages and dowries, to say nothing of their faithfulness.”

Marrying Into Money: Folly!

“It is vilest servitude to submit to the assaults of a wife who is always talking about and insisting on her family's wealth and importance...Spoiled by consciousness of her wealth, she will spend more than you, or rather she, can afford. Having been raised in luxury she will go wild with her abundance of ready money. Your wife will impose numerous rules on your conduct and frequently accuse you of being nothing without her wealth...as they say, nothing is more unbearable than a wealthy woman. [My advice is] Go away, flee, hide yourself in your library!”

Choosing a Profession

“For all the multitude of studious men who have distinguished themselves in the almost infinitely varied fields of knowledge, there are only three professions that will bring monetary reward. One is the profession of those who record cases and contracts [scribes], another, of those who are masters of jurisprudence [lawyers], and the third, of those who treat the sick [physicians].”

On Lawyers

“If an unscrupulous…lawyer takes up an unjust case, they [the ‘crowd’] will call him a great master, the best of men, and a great friend. They have come to think deception a virtue…When a man is good and just and holy…when he stands for law and truth, not employing deceit and audacious lies, not shifting his allegiance at will, not hoping to win for the sake of money, but fighting for the sake of honor, they call him useless, ignorant, and a loser of cases.”

“What can I say of our lawyers that is truly good?...You burst all the seams of your miserable heart; you are not afraid, for the sake of payment, to fight and quibble with the most powerful and eminent citizens. They threaten you, revile you, swear at you, cast blame on you. Unhappy man, you expose your reputation and your back to all this for the sake of money...What a way to make money!"

On the Motivations of Doctors

“Did I not see many good men and good doctors wrestling hard and bitterly with poverty, yet always ready to struggle on? The general public, however, takes the view that medical men, for the sake of money, wish for and follow precisely the things that other men consider sad and horrible, like wounds, disease, plague, and death.”

“Prisoners of war or [those] captured by pirates go involuntarily into servitude, but physicians choose by an impulse of their own to become slaves…physicians…willingly and greedily take on diseases, contagion, and danger of death for a stranger, simply because they are attracted to the transaction by a little heap of coins.”

On Becoming an Academic

“We must consider anyone who devotes himself to learning in the hope of wealth extremely foolish. For the services of learned men that lead to pay are either dishonest or servile.”

“Book learning is not of the slightest use for gaining wealth, but just the opposite, a great financial drain.”

“In case there are any men so shameless that…they have let their greed convince them that, with fraud and deceit, they can make money by the choice of a scholarly career, I want them to know they are greatly mistaken.”

The State of Education

“These days…too many take up the study of books. Those who are notable for intelligence, therefore, clearly see that they should put their energy into something more attractive and more advantageous, anything rather than scholarship. Who can fail to see in all this that our citizens do not value education? Men meant to herd sheep and inhabit stables are discussing and judging the fortunes of humanity.”

Studying and Knowledge

“The more you learn, the more you realize how much you do not know.”

“It is more becoming to bear poverty with fortitude for the sake of knowledge than to gain wealth without honor.”

“No one is so stupid that he doesn't want a connection to learned and famous men.”

Do you think Alberti's advice still hits home today--or should he go back and hide in his library? 

For other installments in the “there is nothing new under the sun” series, see:

Follow me on Twitter at @dlavenda. For more leadership coverage, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

2012 has barely begun, and forget Steve Ballmer's CES keynote: The tech world is already abuzz with Apple intrigue. Here's our take:

iPad 3 "HD"

After months' worth of various speculation, now we're hearing about leaks of parts from Apple suppliers that are said to be from an iPad 3. Supposedly there are more ribbon cables connecting to the 3's display than for the iPad 2, which means more data to the screen, which means a higher resolution.

Numerous sources are now saying that in early 2012 we'll indeed see an iPad 3 which may, or may not, have some label associated with "HD" (our money's on not). It'll also feature up-rated cameras, with a Facetime HD unit on the front beating the current VGA-res one, and a camera on the back that may rival the iPhone 4's (a 5-megapixel shooter) or the iPhone 4S's (an 8-megapixel one). Many times we've heard that while it'll keep the same basic form and makeup of the current iPad, it'll be ever so slightly thicker to support the uprated internals--making a deal of sense, as one of the key deciders for the iPhone's depth is its camera unit. Some suggest the extra depth will allow for a bigger capacity battery--perhaps double in size--which may outperform all Apple's tablet peers by a wide margin.

There's a risk these rumors are people borrowing ideas from each other, warming them over and recycling them as apparently new rumors. But it's looking more and more likely that Apple will indeed have an iPad 3 with a radically better screen and perhaps a slightly deeper chassis.

We also like the parallel idea that Apple will keep the iPad 2 on sale--maybe for $400, maybe less, to compete with the entry-level tablets like the Fire.

iPad 4 in October

This notion has popped up a couple of times, and it's doing the rounds again. The idea is that Apple will release a slightly up-ticked iPad 3 early in 2012, and then follow it in October with an altogether more radically updated machine that matches Apple's new iPhone update schedule.

We're not sure about this. Apple's never been about launching products on each other's heels like this--and launching two iPads inside half a year would certainly destroy good public feeling among the early adopters. Even Apple's iPods had a roughly annual update cycle, and when Apple beefs up its Mac lineup it tends to do minor spec upgrades without any fuss, and big redesigns on a more or less annual basis. To upgrade from the iPhone 4 to 4S Apple even waited around 18 months.

We're very skeptical here. If Apple does have a bigger iPad even planned later in the year, it's unlikely to be a made-over iPad 4. It could be a 7-inch iPad, designed to capture a lower price bracket and sell by the millions for the holidays. But we doubt it.

50-inch Apple TV

There's been a lot of talk about Apple's television plans. The latest rumor is that head of design Jon Ive (soon to be Sir Jon) has a 50-inch Apple HDTV prototype in his design lab, bigger even than earlier rumors that had mentioned sizes in the 30-inch to 40-plus bracket. It's got built-in Wi-Fi... but other than the label "slick," which we'd thoroughly expect to apply to any product coming from Ive's hands, there's little extra data.

One hint is that Apple's not quite as advanced in the plan as had been thought, and hasn't ordered screens in bulk yet...which may mean a product is a year away. The exploding hype about the TV does have an echo of that which preceded the alleged metal iPhone 5 in late 2011--which never materialized (although leaked data later suggested Apple had pursued the design right up to development prototype phases), so we do sort of believe an Apple television may be some way off. As for 50 inches? It's plausible...and matches Apple's habit of aiming at the middle to high end of the market.

New York press event

Many a rumor is going around that Apple has a press event on the cards in late January, based not in one of its habitual West Coast launch venues ... but instead in New York city. The venue choice is said to marry better with the rumored topics of the event: An announcement that may encompass education, non-music content, and iTunes. 

The most believable theory is that the event is to launch something that was one of Steve Jobs' final favorite projects, a boost to iTunes and the iPad that'll bring digital textbooks to millions of students at reduced rates. Some suggest Apple's also embracing a new e-book standard that better allows more dynamic, interactive content in textbooks so the educational value is even more 21st century. A generic focus on publishing is the consensus.

We're in the dark on this one. It's very rumory, and there's a paucity of facts to back it up. But Apple has run events like this before, to highlight big news that's not its typical type ... and its timing is nicely similar to earlier Apple efforts to counter the glut of CES news. If it's true, expect a flurry of excitement in a week or so when the invites hit NY journos' inboxes.

Quad-core A chips

Tiny fragments of code inside Apple's iOS 5.1 have been unearthed by developers and have revealed something interesting: Apple's building support for quad-core processors into its iDevice operating system.

No surprises here. Apple's A4 chip inside the orignal iPad was a 1GHz single-core unit. The A5 inside the iPad 2 was a dual-core slice of silicon. And following developments in the ARM reference designs that Apple bases its own-brand chips on, a quad-core CPU would be a logical extension for the iPad. Some competing Android units already proffer quad-core power, and it would be natural for Apple to stay abreast--as well as offering more power for content creation on the iPad. And while a quad-core A6 chip may eat up more battery, there is that strong rumor the iPad 3 will have significantly bigger battery capacity.

Thunderbolt in iDevices

New patent applications from Apple have stirred a lot of speculation that Apple is planning on building Thunderbolt wired connections into future iPads and iPhones.

In the application itself, Apple notes that the amount of data flowing over a cable when syncing a device like an iPhone has skyrocketed--and that's something anyone who's tried a full re-sync of their 32GB iPhone will attest to, given the length of time it takes.

This is the giveaway here, as a Thunderbolt connection has theoretically much higher speeds than a USB 2 cable, and thus syncing future-gen iPads and iPhones (which will surely have bigger storage aboard) would be swifter. Thunderbolt also allows more power to flow through it, and it could allow for more rapid charging of portable devices.

So this all makes sense. But given the slow speed of adoption of Thunderbolt, no matter its superiority, we wouldn't hold out for this idea proving true in 2012--especially as Apple's patent application is a bit wooly on whether the tech is exactly Thunderbolt-related. Next year, however, is a different matter. 

[Image: Flickr user The D34n]

Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.

Working from home requires a new mindset and a good system, not just a nicer pair of pants (but put those on, too).

Despite all the stories you’ve heard, the hardest part of working from home isn’t putting on pants every day. 

I’ve been working from home, a few different homes, since late 2007. And the biggest thing I've learned during those four years is that working from home doesn’t have to change how you get work done, but it does change nearly everything else about your gig. When there are hard, regular deadlines and a constant flow of work, it is just like being at an office--with the added advantage that nobody else is there to interrupt my train of thought with an impromptu visit. And then there were times when I nearly broke down and told the boss the truth about why that weeklong project was in such sad shape: Because just when I need to focus it becomes clear that there are a lot of interesting links to look at on the Internet. Like this one.

I'm far from the only person to have confronted the joys and challenges of telecommuting. So I asked a few productive work-from-homers what they would do differently, if they could go back in time and reboot their office. Here’s a bit of home-working hindsight that might help you out the next time you’re going to work from home, whether it's for a day or a career.

It’s one of far too many great quotes from Proposition Joe in The Wire, and great advice for getting more done at home.

Dressing for work and "arriving" on time, eating lunch on a rigid schedule, shaving, brushing, and so on seems pointless at first. But not doing these basic preparations is the start of a steep, Teflon-coated slope to all kinds of other transgressions. If you’re not dressed well enough to greet the UPS delivery person, you’re giving yourself license to hide. If you’re hiding, then you imagine nobody can see Netflix open on your second monitor. On and on it goes, until you spend a two-hour lunch watching Portlandia on your couch with your iPad, grabbing your way through a bag of kettle chips. After that you'll try and fake your way through an afternoon of self-loathing busywork.

It’s not clever psychological trickery. It’s having respect for the work you do, wherever you do it. John Herrman, tech writer and assistant editor at Popular Mechanics, suggested in a Twitter chat that it's almost like treating your working self's worst tendencies like a prisoner of war, or maybe someone suffering from grief: Keeping up rituals, routines, and appearances is how you train yourself to do your work when you're supposed to, and set aside the fun stuff for after hours.

When you're in an office, you'll occasionally wish for fewer distractions, more privacy, and for Todd in acquisitions to find a job somewhere else. When you've been working from home at a frantic clip, you'll start to realize how much you miss talking to somebody other than your dog, having a good excuse to get up from your desk, and sharing in the struggle of other workers with intolerable bosses. And you start to fear you're heading toward the social condition depicted by The Oatmeal.

So schedule some regular out-of-home social times. When those sometimes fall through, you’ll realize the value of "batching" your online social time. It's very tempting to keep a Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ tab open at all times, along with Reddit, Hacker News, and other forums and fast-moving link-based sites. When they're always open, they're the equivalent of distracting coworkers, constantly shifting your attention away to complaints, jokes, gossip, and "Did you see..." discussions--the kind of stuff that makes it hard to get work done at work. You also come to appreciate them less, and they become more of a utility.

As geeky as it sounds, then, put your two or three "social breaks" right on your daily agenda or calendar. Don't open social or addictive news sites until that time. Breaking the habit will be hard at first, so try a tool like RescueTime to literally block yourself from your impulses and enforce your segmented work and play times.

Distractions, temptations, and kids can all legitimately get in the way of doing work at home. But sometimes you have to step back and look at other reasons why you're avoiding the work that needs doing. Is it really because you don’t want to do it?

This is perhaps the hardest part of working from home. At an office, you are very likely to be found out and penalized if you spend all day checking Facebook or replaying Portal 2, so you at least make a stab at moving forward on even the most painful tasks. At home, it's up to you to stay motivated, and the things toward the very bottom of the Awesome Challenging Fun list might never get done.

The only real solution is summed up by designer and iOS developer Neven Morgan: "Wake up unable to stop thinking about the awesome thing you're working on." If you lack for an awesome project, or a sense of where the work in front of you is going to take you, that’s probably the reason you’ll do anything other than what you have to do. Luckily, you can think that through and plan your next move anywhere, whether at home, in the office, or in line at the grocery store.

Kevin Purdy is one of the "most-read" authors on the web, according to Read It Later. You can read more of his Work Smart posts here.

[Image provided by Shutterstock]

Breaking news from your editors at Fast Company, with updates all day.

CES 2012 Showoff: OLPC To Unveil Low-cost, Tough Student-Friendly Tablet. One Laptop Per Child is bringing out their XO-3 tablet at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, a little over two years after announcing it in 2009. It will cost $100 and is built as an educational accessory for students in developing countries (where tablets of other flavors are also hitting the education market). OLPC's first attempt, the XO-1 laptop disappointed with its late arrival and higher-than-promised final price, but it's looking like round two with the XO-3 might fare a little better. --NS

--Updated 6:30 a.m. EST

Over the weekend, Google wished Charles Addam, creator of the Adams Family television series, a happy 100th birthday with this Google Doodle.

Netflix Debuts In The U.K.  Netflix has officially launched in the U.K., challenging local favorite LoveFilm. In the months leading up to Netflix's launch late Sunday night, both streaming services courted big film studios and television networks, hoping to get the freshest crop of streaming content on their own service. --NS

PayPal Testing Mobile Payments At Home Depot. A pilot trial running at a handful of Home Depot stores involving a few employees is testing PayPal's mobile payment system, reports AllThingsD. If the system went into operation, customers would be able to pay for their Home Depot shopping using a PayPal credit card or their mobile phone number. Pilots with other retailers are expected in the coming months. --NS

Israel Will Fight Credit Card Hacker. Israel has responded sternly to the cyber security breach last week, supposedly perpetrated by a Saudi-based hacker, in which thousands of Israelis had their credit card details stolen and published. Reuters reports that Israel was viewing the attack as a terrorist threat, and would "fight back." --NS

--Updated 5:30 a.m. EST

[Image: Google]

Friday's Fast Feed: Ford Opening R&D Outfit In Silicon Valley, Iran Clamps Down On Internet Use, 45,000 Facebook Log-ins Stolen By Worm, and more!

When faced with trying to accomplish a big goal, one of the most daunting questions is: Where do I start?  “Standing on the shoulders of giants” is another way of saying you don’t have to start from scratch and you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. In business, we sometimes get too caught up in the idea that we need to be different, that we need to innovate. Of course we need to distinguish ourselves from the competition, but that does not mean we can’t borrow good ideas, make them our own, and do an even better job of executing them.

Use Pattern Thinking

Pattern thinking, where you look at what’s working for someone else and apply it to your own situation, is one of the best ways to make big things happen for you and your team. Combining the knowledge of others with what you know about your brand and industry can lead to results that are more than just incremental improvements, they can help you take a giant leap forward.

One example of this happened early in my career when I was head of the Frito-Lay account, which included Nacho Cheese Doritos, at my ad agency. One day I decided to take my team to the grocery store to look around and get some ideas. What was surprising was how much time we spent, not by the snack foods, but in the salad dressing aisle. Ranch dressing was far and away the best seller in the category at the time. That gave my team and me an idea: Would ranch dressing work as a chip flavor?

We went to Frito-Lay with the concept, but then it became a matter of how to position it. So I looked at what had worked for Nacho Cheese Doritos. They had applied a unique image--nacho--to a known quantity--cheese--to make a product that was both exciting and appealing at the same time. So I asked, “How can we do the same thing for our ranch-dressing-flavored tortilla chip? How can we give a bit of uniqueness to the known quantity, which was ranch dressing?” That eventually led to Cool Ranch Doritos, which is now one of Frito-Lay’s biggest-selling and most profitable products.

Pattern thinking requires that you keep your eyes open and actively seek out new ideas wherever you can find them. And you won’t truly have your eyes open unless you have enough humility to admit that the best ideas aren’t always going to come from you.

Become a Know-How Junkie

In 1997, PepsiCo spun off KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, thereby forming Yum! Brands (formerly Tricon Global Restaurants). The restaurant business had been struggling, which was a major reason why PepsiCo leaders thought they’d do better if they spun us off. But in my mind, that gave us the opportunity for what I characterized as a “gigantic do-over.”   

To take advantage of our unique position of being a brand-new public company made up of well-established brands, we did a best-practice tour of some of the most successful companies around at the time in order to take inspiration from them and borrow any good ideas we could find. We visited seven companies in all--GE, Walmart, Home Depot, Southwest Airlines, Target, Coke, and UPS--and then came back and crystallized what we’d learned into five things that we called our "Dynasty Drivers." These were the things that we believed would make us an enduringly great company and included: A Company Where Everyone Makes a Difference; Customer and Sales Mania; Competitive Brand Differentiation; Continuity in People and Process; and Consistency in Results.

That early best-practices tour gave our company a base of knowledge and a focus that we have been building on ever since. It really reinforced the idea in our company that, for any problem we need to solve, learning all we can about it is the best place to start. There is always more to know, and when people ask me what I look for when hiring someone, an avid learner tops the list. People who are avid learners love what they do and seek out know-how wherever they can find it, which makes them a whole lot smarter and their results a whole lot better.

Here are four tactics for being a better know-how junkie:

1. Eliminate "not invented here."  The phrase "not invented here" refers to an unwillingness to adopt something because it didn’t originate with you. As leader, it’s your job to make sure that nothing gets in the way of a good idea, no matter where it comes from.  

2. Act like you own the place.  I don’t mean that you should act like you own the place in terms of your ego, but more in terms of how you think about the business. If you owned the company where you work, you’d be concerned with all aspects of it. You wouldn’t just think about your own role or your own department; you’d think about the total picture. Adopting this attitude will force you to look at and learn about more aspects of the business, which will give you a broader perspective. It will also demonstrate to others your potential for taking on more responsibility. 

3. Keep your big goal top-of-mind.  In the information age, knowledge is everywhere, so you have to be strategic about it. Have you ever noticed that when you decide which car you want to buy, you suddenly see that car everywhere you go? Well, that’s not because everyone has the same car; it’s because identifying what you want gives your brain a focus and a filter. You have to do the same for your Big Goal. Keep your antennae up and your Big Goal top-of-mind, and you will suddenly see ideas for how to reach it everywhere you look. 

4. Seek out knowledge holders and sources.  Be proactive about gaining knowledge by searching for expertise. Who knows something about what you’re working on? Go talk to those people. You’d be amazed how many doors you can open just by telling people you’d like to learn from them. In addition, where can you find information about what you’re working on? Go look up those sources, whether they are case studies, books, business magazines or what have you. 

Being open to and on the lookout for good ideas yourself is only half that battle. You have to position yourself so that good ideas can come to you. That means creating an atmosphere in which the people around you feel comfortable speaking up and know that there is a benefit in doing so. If you want to take people with you and accomplish your Big Goal more efficiently and effectively, you need to learn to see every person and every experience as an opportunity to expand your knowledge base.

As Sir Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”  I love that quote and wholeheartedly agree, but I would go one more: You will see even further if you stand on the giants’ shoulders and take pride in crediting and thanking them for the view.

David Novak is the chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc.; this article is adapted from his new book, TAKING PEOPLE WITH YOU: The Only Way to Make BIG Things Happen.

For more leadership coverage, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

[Image: Flickr user Vishal Patel]

Three years ago, only 54% of small businesses had websites. Now 82% do. But lots of them have no idea how to use Google's most valuable ad tool. So the search giant is launching a slew of services and products to make AdWords easier.

Ask the guy at your local dry cleaners or mechanic shop or bakery how he gets the most out of Google AdWords. Odds are he'll give you a sideways look and ask, "Google Ad-whats?"

When it launched 11 years ago, Google's AdWords was a straightforward product. Advertisers could buy search terms, and Google would display small ads every time someone searched for those words. It was a lot like the classifieds.

Today, AdWords generates the vast majority of Google's revenue. But it's also become incredibly complex to use. A whole "search engine marketing" consulting industry has emerged just to help AdWords customers make the right choices on which keywords to buy and how much to bid.

That's why last summer, Google launched a "lite" version of AdWords called "AdWords Express," that's both easier to understand and faster to use. And last spring, it introduced free phone support to help AdWords customers learn to use the product. That service is now available in about 70 countries around the world.

"We are making it a priority now to ensure small businesses are successful," Francoise Brougher, Google vice president of global SMB sales and operations, tells Fast Company.

The moves are part of a larger effort at Google to make itself attractive to the kinds of organizations that in previous years would have fallen through the cracks, the types of small businesses--usually local ones, like mechanics and dry cleaners--whose owners have neither the time to learn how to use AdWords themselves nor the money to pay consultants to run campaigns for them.

But the moves also come at a time when the competition for local online marketing dollars is heating up and when new forms of online advertising--those offered by social networks like Facebook--are creating new alternatives to search advertising.

"As advertisers become more successful experimenting with Facebook's advertising options, it's likely they're going to put more dollars there," Constant Contact's general manager of social media Mark Schmulen tells Fast Company. 

Schmulen said he hasn’t seen any data that indicates that social networks have started to steal advertising dollars away from search marketing. But, he says, "it's certainly something to think about."

In addition to AdWords Express, Google has launched other programs aimed at small and local businesses. It's piloting a credit card that can be used to buy advertising on AdWords--effectively serving as a low-interest loan during times when businesses might want to do a lot of advertising, like the Christmas season, but don't necessarily have the cash flow to support it. 

Google has launched a Mobile Site Builder to help businesses create simple, mobile-friendly websites. It plans to make AdWords Express available to resellers who already sell AdWords advertising on its behalf. And last fall, the company teamed up with American Express to launch a video competition to encourage small businesses to post videos to YouTube. 

Google has also launched an outreach program, called "Get Your Business Online," to help small businesses set up their own websites. The program has taken place in a dozen states and about 20 countries overseas, including the U.K., Brazil, and Kenya. 

Google's initiative comes at a time when it is increasingly imperative for businesses of every size to have a presence online. Consumers today have gotten in the habit of turning to the web for many of their shopping needs, in a way they weren't necessarily doing even five years ago.

According to a BIA/Kelsey study, almost all consumers (97%) now go online to research products or services in their local area. Not being online today is the equivalent in earlier eras of not having a storefront or a Yellow Pages listing. It's effectively impossible for potential customers to find you.

Small businesses are beginning to grasp that. Just three years ago, Ad-ology Research found that only 54% of businesses with 100 or fewer employees had a website. In its most recent report, Small Business Marketing Forecast 2012, it found that 82% of small businesses have a web presence.

But helping small businesses set up websites also helps Google. Once a company gets online, they're only a hop, skip, and a jump away from considering online marketing, including search marketing.

Google won't release details on how AdWords Express is doing, but it does say that the majority of users are new AdWords customers. "Our small businesses are fueling a lot of revenue for Google in a way they didn't before," Brougher says.

That may be increasingly important given how the fight for online local advertising dollars is heating up. Ad-ology CEO Lee Smith tells Fast Company that the sales teams of traditional local advertisers, like newspapers, radio, and TV, are increasingly emphasizing their online options. And Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing have both developed extensive programs to work with local partners.

And then there's Facebook, which has developed a suite of new advertising options, like Sponsored Stories, which are focused on amplifying the holy grail for small businesses: word of mouth. In its Fall 2011 Attitudes and Outlook Survey, Constant Contact found that 81% of their small business customers had dabbled in social media marketing. That was up from 73% just six months earlier.

All of which gives Google reason to turn its eye on a category of customer it previously had not focused on. And indeed, Brougher says the company has even more programs up its sleeve. "In the next 12 months," she says, "there will be more products coming out for small businesses." 

[Image: Flickr user Wisconsin Historical Images]

E.B. Boyd is FastCompany.com's Silicon Valley reporter. Twitter | Google+ | Email

Ford is hoping to jump-start a new race in automative mobile tech by way of an outpost in the heart of the nation's tech innovation district--a research lab in Silicon Valley that will help it make better cars and better friends.

Gentlemen and gentlewomen: Start your algorithms.

Car companies, even the speed fiends among them, are notoriously sluggish about adopting new mobile technology. Ford is hoping to jump-start a new race in automative mobile tech by way of an outpost in the heart of the nation's tech innovation district--a research lab in Silicon Valley that will help it make better cars and better friends. Stationed in California, Ford wants to make sure it gets first pick at new tech blossoming at startups in the Valley. The facility, which execs hope will open in the first quarter this year, will supplement Ford's existing R&D facility back at home base in Dearborn, MI. Ford is still hunting for a Valley location to rent and plans to hire 15 people--mostly from the Bay Area--to work in the lab.

Heading the move is K. Venkatesh Prasad, senior tech lead of the Ford Research and Innovation team. Prasad joined Ford after years of experience working on robotics at places like NASA and Caltech. He was a key part of the team that built Ford's SYNC platform, one of the first communication devices which hooked up a car's dashboard to smartphones. But the future he imagines goes much further than that. "Computing and communication-based platforms are going to be connected in ways we can't fathom now," Prasad tells Fast Company. Key to keeping Ford ahead of the curve is to catch tech further upstream, he explains, rather than waiting for folks to come to Dearborn. That is: find and friend them on home turf. "By going there, we could go two or three steps ahead of where we were now," Prasad says.

The move, while about getting the hottest, freshest tech, is also about forging new alliances and partnerships. Prasad says Ford is open to "all kinds of interactions," and will court collaborators at tech firms big and small, as well as researchers at institutions like Stanford and UC Berkeley. In fact, OpenXC, Ford's open source API for automobiles, will be headed up at the Silicon Valley lab and will be shipping out to the University of Michigan, MIT, and Stanford this month. "We're keeping ourselves completely open," Prasad said.

Ford will be looking for innovations that will boost connectivity in cars in three broad areas: safety, infotainment, and eco-saviness. In two of those areas, Ford is already ahead of the curve: Pandora and Ford were early partners in getting the radio app in cars. And Ford has a history of hunting for better and newer materials that will go into car models, like its recent plan to recycle 2 million plastic bottles to upholster the interiors of the Focus Electric. Ford engineers are also building a link-up to a Google predictive algorithm which could help drivers make energy-efficient choices about the routes they take to work or to the grocery store.

Scouts at Ford will be on the lookout for revolutionary new tech that could weave into your space in the next generation of automobiles, but it's equally likely to reach out to existing applications that are built for stationary platforms, that could be modified to hit the road. For their part, startups like Pandora are recognizing the potential of courting carmaker partners as slow-moving, but steady allies in the connectivity business.

Alan Mulally, chief executive of Ford, once told Fast Company: "Tech is why people are going to buy Ford! We're going to be the coolest, most useful app you've ever had, seamlessly keeping you connected."

Planning ahead for future tech would give Ford a speedy head start on the competition.

Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and science. Follow on Twitter, Google+.

[Image: Flickr user drburtoni]

If you take a look at the top 10 Twitter users you'll see a list of famous men and women, from Justin Bieber to Selena Gomez, who have used the popular platform to further expand their personal brands. Perhaps more interesting, however, is how everyday people are investing more time and energy into social networking for professional purposes.

Just over a year ago, a local 16-year-old high school student emailed me out of the blue, proposing that he join me as a guest on a TV show I host. Winston Sih didn't send along a resume, but instead included links to his website, Twitter account, Facebook page, and three relevant YouTube clips. While there are plenty of examples of teens jeopardizing their digital reputation, with bullying and threats on friends' walls or late-night "I hate my job" tweets, Sih is a perfect example of someone who has learned how to use the web to his advantage--building a strong and positive personal brand before he even reaches his adult years (12 months into his brand-building exercise, he is already a well-known regular tech TV expert and blogger--and he's not even out of high school yet).

While few of us will ever have the celebrity factor to drive our online networks (or a PR spin team to protect us if we post something stupid), there is a lot we can learn from Sih and other personal brand-builders. In 2012, if you have a plan in place, smart social networking is the key to taking control of your professional life. Here are 5 steps to building a better personal brand online.

1. Have a home base online.  While Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are excellent destinations to promote what you do, make sure that you also invest time and energy into your own personal website. Whether you take advantage of easy-to-use tools such as Squarespace or WordPress, a simple and clean online home for all your professional information and social streams is a necessity. Not only is it critical to build this home base, but it's also important to drive traffic back to this site to further educate visitors about what you do (or want to do) for a living. Finally, use a professional headshot on your site to give you that competitive edge (sorry--a cropped Facebook photo just won't do!).

2. Be a better blogger.  Although online pundits regularly declare that blogging is dead, such as Jason Calacanis did at a tech conference toward the end of December, blogging has simply become much more diverse. It's no longer necessary to write multi-paragraph posts, but instead services such as Tumblr make it easy for individuals to share shorter entries or snippets of text that often include photos and other multimedia. A weekly blog update (or more frequent if you can afford the time) that includes some shareable content is a useful way to drive traffic back from social channels to your website (and to establish yourself as an expert on a topic).

3. Avoid mobile mistakes.  In April 2009, we often referred to Ashton Kutcher as the King of Twitter. This past November, the actor posted a tweet defending Penn State's Joe Paterno (without realizing the sex abuse controversy surrounding the coach) that inspired a "hailstorm of responses" from Kutcher's many followers. Once again, this was an example of how 140 characters or less can immediately damage someone's reputation. Moreover, with more people posting from mobile phones, it's far too easy to make a real-time mistake like this--whether it's updating your status with an inappropriate comment or letting auto-correct do some digital damage. In other words, when networking on the go make sure you carefully review what you're about to push live or, perhaps a better idea, wait until you have a few minutes to review the update without so many mobile distractions.

4. Never stop networking.  For non-celebrities who build themselves into well-known brands online, take a look at how frequently they interact. For example, social media author Scott Stratten has tweeted more than 80,000 times. If he's not sharing digital wisdom across his many online channels, he's responding to messages and reaching out to people to keep the web conversation going. If you don't know where to start, whether it's on LinkedIn or Twitter, find five new people to follow or connect with every day. Make an effort to share something these people have posted or, a simple task, reach out and say hello.

5. Adopt new services.  When it comes to personal branding, there is a lot of emphasis on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but there are plenty of other channels to tell your story. Take a look at how well author Timothy Ferriss has used short YouTube videos to promote his 4-Hour mantra and other activities. Google+ is a solid new service for building a personal brand and apps, such as Path, will also allow you to network with people you care about connecting with on a professional level (keep in mind that the latter has a 150-friend limit). While it's not critical to jump on every newly launched service, it can help to choose two or three of the most popular services and then every few months try a new platform on for size.

Read more from the Work Flow series

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[Image: Flickr user Joshua Hoffman]

A new social reality entertainment site puts performers up front and gives critics a chance to judge wisely.

Andrew Garner dances shirtless to “Friday” by Rebecca Black during his turn to broadcast live on YouNow.com.

Anyone who’s ever wanted to throw rotten fruit at a performer: Your moment has arrived.

It’s the first New York Tech Meetup of 2012, and YouNow.com founder Adi Sideman is stepping on stage in front of 800 enthusiasts to show off "a new social television platform” that could, for many performers, eliminate the kind of stage Sideman's standing on. As he speaks, a 50-foot screen shows a web browser flipping through various live “channels": A boy plays guitar while invisible fans give him points; a teenage girl talks to the webcam while commenters type “get naked!”; an amateur rapper gets virtual tomatoes chucked at his face.

A four-time media entrepreneur, Sideman launched YouNow, a never-ending webcam game show, in September 2011, and grew it to 100,000 monthly viewers by December. “This is the world's first live broadcast social game,” he announces. But it’s more than a social game. It’s another sign in an ongoing shift in the entertainment business--the other side to all of this original content coming to user-generated social media. And another reason more people might soon choose the web over traditional TV.

The rise of inexpensive broadcasting technology--laptops with built-in webcams, FaceTime, and Internet connections strong enough to support streaming video--means it’s now possible for the average consumer to do what only radio and TV stations could do before.

Sites like YouTube and Vimeo have supported streaming video downloads for the better part of a decade, but the ability to stream live video to the web while others watch and participate has been slow to catch up.

“Just like publishing was democratized,” Sideman explains in an interview, “live will also be democratized.” Live, one-way video platforms like Justin.tv and Livestream have grown in popularity over the last few years, but Sideman believes that new technology today enables “a unique new format.”

Web medium aside, the feeling participants are left with is something akin to the feeling late-'70s TV viewers might have had watching Chuck Barris’s classic TV game, The Gong Show--where contestants showed off various talents to a panel of judges. It was irreverent and dominated by sketchy performers with hilariously bad acts (and, of course, tons of polyester and bell-bottoms). When judges decided enough was enough, one of them rang a giant gong and cut the performer off, mid-unicycle spin. Much of the show’s appeal was due to the mix of awe-inspiring talent and aesthetic atrocity that took the stage. "The Gong Show was corny but unpretentious and a lot of fun. Considering the bloated, overrated junk that passes itself off as talent competitions now, I wish I had taken it more seriously back in the day," says renown critic Rex Reed. YouNow is like America’s Got Talent. The users can engage in the same sort of vitriol that makes Simon Cowell rants so hard to tear away from today.

On YouNow, would-be broadcasters log in via Facebook and queue up for 60-second shots at fame. As videos stream, viewers spend points--gained by broadcasting themselves--to vote whether to kill the feed and move on. If voting ends up neutral or positive, the current star gets another 60 seconds.

Sideman says, "People live a lifetime and don't get to perform in front of a large audience, and with this system we provide the airtime and the eyeballs."

And, again, like The Gong Show, the level of talent on YouNow is, um, diverse.

“My tongue has gone numb,” says an English girl named Laura during her broadcast, after a chat viewer talks her into licking wet nail polish. A quick visit to the “Hip Hop” channel reveals an attractive blonde, not hip-hopping, but talking about herself. Viewers vote her up for several minutes, nonetheless. The “Music+” channel shows an actual musician actually performing. He sings off-key while playing his guitar, but supportive viewers let him finish the song before voting him off.

Gong.

The two “Talk” channels typically consist of teenage boys from the U.K. rambling about their lives. “I think this is because of the fact that young girls like the good-looking guys, so [they] will keep them on,” says Fiona MacLennan, a 16-year-old from Aberdeen, Scotland, in an email interview.

MacLennan started using YouNow after hearing that Reality TV star Sam Pepper from the U.K.’s Big Brother had joined. “YouNow has basically taken over my life,” she says.

Another channel shows a trio of teens flipping off the camera while chatters berate them. The vote plummets, but the stars get 45 more seconds of cursing in before the camera cuts.

Certain crowds, Sideman explains, have not necessarily adapted to the site. The way to get people to behave, he says, is engineering a social game where incentives like points, levels, and prizes like iPods entice users to keep order.

And despite a good amount of chaos, it’s hard to stop watching.

“YouNow is truly addicting,” says Joe “J RillA” Ryan III, an independent hip-hop producer from Flint, MI, who uses YouNow to work toward becoming a “worldwide Artist.”

Another user, Tahj Trav, says in an email, “YouNow is nothing like other broadcasting sites, not even close ... none of them puts you in the spotlight or on the front page. Instead you become buried in a list of broadcasts, and the chances of being found are pretty slim.”

YouNow raised just north of a million dollars from investors to grow its audience to a critical mass. They plan to monetize via virtual goods, and at scale, one can imagine opportunities for sponsored shows and contests, in addition to an ad-supported model.

YouNow’s breed of social reality will turn toward politics in 2012, Sideman says. “We're planning a political channel to let pundits talk during election season.”

Imagine Barack Obama fans warring with Glenn Beck followers in a never-ending Gong Show debate. It might be enough to make voters feel like they actually have a voice.

Or perhaps make them feel like moving to Canada.

[Disclosure: One of YouNow’s minority investors, Founder Collective, is also an investor in a startup that Shane Snow cofounded (Contently.com).]

[Image: Retrieved from YouNow.com on January 7, 2012]

Blockbuster is finally coming to the iPad. The video-rental company, which Dish Network acquired in April, has been trying to remake itself in the eyes of consumers after last year's bankruptcy sale. "When the technology changes, when the customer changes, you better change," Dish Network CEO Joe Clayton said in September. "The winds of change are blowing ... more Americans are demanding an easier way to view video."

To this end, Dish has been pushing more digital initiatives, including the Blockbuster Movie Pass (today, renamed Blockbuster @Home), a rumored multiroom DVR "Hopper" that it's expected to unveil today at CES, and an upgraded iPad app that includes streaming access to Blockbuster, HBO, and more premium content. It's a step in the right direction, certainly, but the question is whether Blockbuster is offering too little--or perhaps way too much--too late. Having arrived on the iPad years after competitors with a Blockbuster subscription service tied to purchasing a traditional Dish cable package, it's unclear whether Dish is even trying to compete head on with Netflix and Amazon, or instead trying to gain a leg up against Time Warner and Comcast.

To gain access to Blockbuster @Home, consumers will need to first purchase a subscription to Dish Network. Basic packages start anywhere from $19.99 to $24.99 per month with an annual commitment; to add Blockbuster, which includes access to both streaming content and DVDs by mail, customers must pay an additional $10 per month. Price is the first issue here. It's unlikely consumers, who just months ago started the equivalent of Occupy Los Gatos after Netflix raised its prices (which start at $7.99), would be interested in leaving Netflix to pay more money with Dish.

The more pressing issue here though is Dish's complicated value proposition. We tried to untangle it recently, and it was far from easy. If you order the total package, you'll gain access to 3,000 movies and TV shows from Blockbuster @Home on your television, if you have a set-top box; 4,000 movies and TV shows available through Blockbuster on DishOnline.com; the ability to purchase VOD content on an à la carte basis; DVDs by mail; video games by mail; in-store exchanges; and the ability to watch on-demand content through the Dish Remote Access app. (Depending on your package, you will gain access to Blockbuster, HBO, Epix, and other premium channels through the Dish Remote Access app. There will be no separate Blockbuster app, it seems.) You can also watch live TV through the Dish Remote App--that is, if you have a "ViP 922 Slingloaded DVR or the ViP 722 or 722k DVR with the Sling Adapter accessory." (Can't wait for my mother to call with questions about that.) Lastly, Dish also plans to partner with app developer Thuuz to create a Google TV app that tracks "excitement levels" in sporting events.

(This must be quite a dramatic shift for Blockbuster, considering former CEO Jim Keyes once said it made his "head hurt" to imagine streaming content through a Nintendo Wii.)

The value proposition here has all the elements of car-salesman marketing--the feeling that for just this small extra price, they'll throw in the fancy brake pads and year's supply of Turtle Wax. If you have any doubt about how complicated it is to sign up for the service, just try it yourself. The following image reflects only the first step in an arduous process that looks about as fun as reading the updated terms and conditions on iTunes:

Given, car salesmanship has always been common among cable providers, which are seemingly intent on selling you more things you don't know whether or not you need. But the trend here is moving toward offering simple packages, whether through clean straightforward subscriptions from Netflix, Hulu Plus, or Amazon, or slicker viewing experiences from startups such as Peel.

Dish ought to start treating Blockbuster as a unique asset, with a simple value proposition. (They did, after all, spend a reported $320 million purchasing the struggling company.) Instead, Dish is treating Blockbuster as just another channel or service you can add to your package, similar to HBO, Cinemax, or Showtime. Why not create a Blockbuster streaming app to push subscriptions? Why not create a streaming-only plan, as Netflix has done? The company doesn't even refer to it as "Blockbuster Movie Pass" (or "@Home") on its order form--only as "Movie Pass," a premium package buried among 23 other options.

Dish CEO Joe Clayton was right to say that consumers are looking for an "easier way to view video."