Steve Jobs has died and the world has lost a visionary. Apart from the fact that it’s a tragedy for the company and perhaps the whole industry, a more pressing question arises. It is the question of Steve’s legacy.

Given that Steve Jobs was the embodiment of Apple, what is going to happen with the company after his death? Will Apple still remain the world leader in innovation and flawless product design? One issue is to preserve the market position in terms of stakeholder relations and financial stability. Another one is to preserve company culture in to stay competitive and manufacture products that will get better and better.

Financial matters – the easy part

In the world of finance, budgetary skills and clever allocation of resources determine the winner. Steve has long ceased worrying about this aspect of his entrepreneurship and has left it to the financial geniuses. Of course, we can expect a short-term share fall, but my bet is that in terms of financial performance, Apple will fare well in the long term.

Company culture – the difficult part

Corporate culture is no laughing matter because it directly influences the way the company creates products. If the creative energy stemming from Steve is gone, will Apple be able to sustain its position as an innovator?

Even though, Jobs has openly said that Woz was the innovator in the company, I have my doubts. Woz might have come up with the actual technical innovation, but it was Steve’s energy and authority that created the context in which innovation was possible. I contend that with Steve Jobs’ death, Apple has set on a path to decline.

While you were sleeping

The proof thereof lies in the decade between 1985 and 1996 when Apple was left without a strong leader. Its financial results plateaued and there was very little sense of direction.

The company had still been employing innovators and creating good products. Good products – yes. Great products – maybe. Revolutionary products – no. It took Steve’s second coming to turn Apple into an innovation giant it is now.

With king gone, what remains?

What happens next? Who knows? Maybe the great innovator has left a testament including an action plan and long-term vision for the company. Maybe not… It is irrefutable that Steve Jobs has left a major footprint in the technology world and his legacy will live for long.

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Welcome Skypecrosoft! It seems that Skype owners are going to be rather wealthy – they sold the leading provider of free IP telephony to a software giant for about $8.5 billion. Needless to say that Skype was not doing well to say the least. It had backed out of IPO and currently finds itself in a debt of $686 million. This raises numerous questions, especially “Why has Microsoft paid so much money for Skype?”

The reason is simple enough – Skype’s user base totals over half a billion names and contacts and Microsoft’s competitors are getting stronger. If you were in the shoes of Microsoft’s Strategy Director, what would you do when Google Voice is getting increasingly popular and Apple FaceTime is cutting an increasingly larger share of the pie? The counter-move fitting this situation is obvious: buy Skype.

What will the acquisition do with Skype’s marketing?

Nothing right now. Microsoft will probably let the Skype brand live its own life for a while. Then integration will take place and some users will leave. The core will stay, though. Afterall, people need a software client to speak to each other for free.

What does integration do to brand’s narrative?

It will either change it from the ground or take the current one to the next level. Skype used to be one of the “cool” and “anti-establishment” brands. It got acquired for a preposterous amount of money to the brand that has embodied establishment for many years. Core users and brand fans may perceive the Skype brand as a sell-out and it’s up to Microsoft to overcome that.

What will the marketers keep saying to keep the users from leaving?

My safest bet is that integration will be the name of the game. Microsoft will make the Skype brand “grow up” and become integrated with its other products.  It might even continue down the road towards the sterilisation of the brand. Skype will change from being “cool to use” to being “a tool to use”.

What do you guys think? Is Skype’s brand identity dead or will Microsoft leave it intact?

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I generally don’t publish press releases but this one caught my eye. You can comment on this post to make me feel less like a commercial sell-out. Here is the edited part taken from the news release.

Communications company QuestFore has launched a sweepstakes contest. The agency will award one lucky business $15,000 in internal marketing services. Entry is open to all businesses, large or small, from March 15 to June 30, 2011.

What types of services would the winner have access to? Quest Fore offers comprehensive marketing resources, from research and strategic planning to traditional advertising and interactive services.

Let’s end it with a commentary, shall we? I think it is a good idea for the agency to promote itself this way. What does it cost them? Time and willpower. What do they get in return? New contacts, and if they manage to impress, new client will join their portfolio.

Sweepstakes is an overused marketing tool but QuestFore shows that you can succeed with this old dinosaur, provided you have a good idea. I wonder who will be the first agency to do this on the Czech market?

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Czech interactive marketing will never be the same again. Ataxo Group has acquired H1.cz, one of the leading agencies focused on PPC advertising. The result of the merger will be a powerhouse with strong potential to dominate the Czech market. Expected turnover in 2011 is about 250 million CZK and it will be created by around 150 employees.

“The merger of the H1.cz  team with the Ataxo Group is mutually beneficial on many levels. We both have a similar approach to our client relationship management, offer first class customer service and have a history of the biggest players on the market,” said Peter Wiedemann, President and CEO of Ataxo.

Why did Ataxo acquire H1.cz?

1. H1.cz has more corporate clients with great growth potential in the post-recession environment
2. H1.cz knows really well how to do PPC and Ataxo needs that knowledge
3. Ataxo knows how to hook and retain the clients, while H1.cz has nearly no sales team

This merger is only a logical conclusion of Ataxo’s efforts to cover a greater portion of the market and capitalize on the big corporate clients. Although the two players are no strangers to Czech online marketing, they are more different than similar. While Ataxo’s main target market are small and medium enterprises, H1.cz caters to the big fish (Ceska pojistovna, Telefonica O2, Home Credit). Another discrepancy lies within the expertise of the agencies’ staff. Historically, Ataxo has been very good at doing SEM, while H1.cz rules in the realm of PPC ad campaigns. Ataxo also wants to complement its team with with the specialists from a different field.

Future of both brands

As of now, the management of both companies has decided against re-branding. My guess is that the brands will not stay apart for a long time and unification will eventually occur, but they don’t want to do it now in order to prevent negative coverage. Is maintaining two brands a wise choice? On a small market, like in the Czech Republic, it is. Furthermore, the clients won’t get confused, the media won’t get confused and the public will not think of Ataxo as a predatory corporation.

Only the positive side doesn’t say it all

David Špinar, Managing Director of H1.cz claims in the official press release that

Due to integration, we will be able to concentrate more on what we do best, especially on providing our VIP clients with high-class services. The merger will also provide our staff with the option to professionally grow.

Call me a skeptic, but if there is one thing I don’t buy about this merger, it is the claim that the consolidation has only a positive side. Every merger is expensive and has to pay for itself, which is why PMI (post-merger integration) processes and cost cutting usually follow it. Although the management of both Ataxo and H1.cz has denied any of these effects taking place in the future, chances are that the merger party will be sooner or later followed by a financial hangover. The fact that 2010 was a good year for H1.cz (the company had time to create financial reserves) might alleviate some of that pain. However, gradually amortising the costs over time might unnecessarily prolong the transition period, which would be unwise.

Good job!

It is undeniable that the acquisition will put a financial strain on both companies but in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter. What matters is how they deal with it. In the case of H1.cz and Ataxo I have no doubts the management will do the right things and steer the company towards prosperity. My congratulations especially to the owners of H1.cz who have changed the Czech digital advertising market by creating a major player from nothing but their know-how and skills!

Image credit: o5com, H1.cz, Ataxo

Every year brings something new and every year I muse about the meaning of it all. Here are lessons learnt during the year of 2010. This post has nothing to do with professional life. Ye be warned!

The greatest revelation of 2010 was that relationships matter. Well, it wasn’t a great revelation, it just affirmed what I had already known. Nonetheless, it was great to find out that this rule still holds. If it didn’t I would be out of job this second. Another thing I noticed is that every relationship has its own power dynamic. It doesn’t matter whether the relation is professional or personal, the struggle for power is always there. That’s what makes a difference between a lover’s quarrel and a divorce or bad press and a tabloid-worthy disaster.

Another lesson that the year 2010 has taught me was about the work-life balance. In the words of great Jack Welch,

There is no work-life balance, there are only work-life choices.

The events from the last year emphasized the importance of having life outside of workplace. It is true that one should be always working on improving skills and pushing the limits of the possible. However, pushing too far locks you into a box and creates long-term tunnel vision. You stop focusing on all the good things in life you can enjoy and start taking work way too seriously. Don’t do that. In order to be productive, you must be emotionally well-balanced and fresh, not dull and tired from overtimes.

All in all, 2010 has been a good year. Out with the old, in with the new!

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It’s good to have goals. It’s good to have objectives. But it’s absolutely essential to have dreams. When you dream, dream BIG dreams. That’s what I’m doing – I’m dreaming big time. Yes, this is going to be an article falling into the category of “bucket list” posts. Without further ado, here we go.

TOP 3 things to do before I turn 25

1. Enroll into and successfully finish MA studies
2. Do PR and marketing on the side of the client
3. Create a memorable marketing campaign

Long-term planning

• Find a marcomms-related job outside of the Czech Republic
• Profile myself in financial services industry, should I stay in CZ
• Leave CZ for a while to gain experience in PR and marketing communications somewhere else

Do you ever wonder why people fill the Internet with this crap? All right, since you made it through the post all the way here, you deserve an explanation.

It’s all about public commitment – stating your goals publicly will help you to achieve them. Given that more people know about them and might hold you accountable for achieving them, you will work harder and focus more attentively. The trick works even if the people you tell this to are hidden behind computer screens and thousands of miles away from you. Ruining your public image by seeming inconsistent is a good enough incentive to work very hard and achieve the set of goals you have had created.

Thus, the reason why people post these things is to motivate themselves. The very thought that someone could in the future hold you accountable does the trick.

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Why is it taking me so long to write up a couple of summarising paragraphs about Social Marketers Summit 2010? Everybody has written about it already – Patrick Zandl on Lupa.cz, Maru Grafová on her own blog and countless others everywhere in the media. The reason is that I thought long and hard about writing this post, re-wrote it from the scratch twice and realised it’s worthy of being published.

There is so much to say about SMS 2010, because it was a conference full of discrepancies and controversies. However, many others have done it for me, so it would be better for me to leave it up to them.

Personally, I was a bit disappointed, because I had expected the organizers to say something new and applicable in the Czech environment. Some speakers were dead-on when it came to social media essentials, but nobody really broadened my horizons. Even though it could have been better, thank goodness for relatively high quality of this conference. Compared to seminars of APRA, it was a good standard.

For those of you, who want to read this post in Czech, feel free to point your browsers to Honza Páv’s blog Eikasia.cz.

Czech marketers still perceive social media as a threat and do not realise the potential of the dialogue. Being on social networks and gaining relevance among the customers is so easy, though. Consider this very common dialogue between and agency and a client, where the client is inquiring about his plan regarding social networks.

Client: “We want to be present in social media.”

Agency (full of excitement): “That’s great! We can start building up your image with blogs, then move to Facebook and maybe even start tweeting. Where would you like to start?”

C: “I’m not sure we would like to do any of that.”

A: “What? How do you want to start a dialogue without taking initiative?”

C: “Who said we want to start a dialogue? We just want to be there and listen.”

A: “Sure, that’s an important part of participating in that field but sooner or later, you will have to start talking so you can be recognized and claim your voice.”

C: “Yeah, about that, we don’t want to be recognized and we certainly don’t want to talk openly.”

A: “That’s confusing. Why exactly do you want to be present in social networks?”

C: “Because there are people saying bad things about us and making plans how to destroy our reputation. We have to know about it and stop them.”

A: contemplating the difference between paranoia and insanity “So, you just want to spy on people?”

The interesting part of the dialogue usually ends here and the rest of the meeting is spent on crushing of good ideas (from the agency’s perpective) and yammering about a bogus idea that consumers have power (from the client’s perspective).

Are we stupid?

There is an awful lot of Czech clients who do not see the social media as an opportunity to engage with their customers. Instead, they view it as a breeding ground for dissent and potential harm to their brand. How come the marketers have become so adversarial towards the very people they cater to? I don’t know, but feel free to express your opinion in the comments section. However, it seems to be a prevalent and an ongoing trend among the marketers.

How it really is

The truth is that people talk about your brand on social media regardless of your presence or activitiy. The landscape has shifted and become entirely different compared to the last decade. You can only be a part of the dialogue and try to be either useful or entertaining to the customers. Forget about controlling the message. All you can do is to measure response and decide whether it’s negative or positive. If you decide to use social media as a sales channel, you can also measure conversion rate, but that’s about it.

Getting rid of a communication block

Nothing persuades you of the value of communication over social networks like going on Facebook and searching for your brand. Better yet, get a trial of a social monitoring software and see what people are saying across the social networks. You will be amazed how much publicity your brand gets, even though you don’t know about it.

To have at least some space in the dialogue, you must engage with the customers. Everyone of us views the social media as an extension of his personal space and doesn’t care about your brand. The only two ways to become relevant to the customer on the social network is to be either useful or funny. Nothing else works. Which road will you choose?

Right off the bat: let me invite you to Social Marketers Summit. It is a conference about social media taking place in Prague on 9 September, 2010 at Slovanský Dům (Na Příkopě 859/22, 110 00 Prague 1).

No matter in what city or country you live in, a conference or a workshop dedicated to online PR and social media is bound to happen near you. Most of them are average at best and remind the visitors of pre-ordained kabuki. A local icon or a social media guru comes on stage and starts going on and on about “the challenges facing the marketing and PR industry in the age of new media and user-generated content”, while boring the audience to sleep. This summit isn’t going to be like that.

As every conference depends on the people who organise it, I believe this one is set up for success. Behind the scenes are Pavel Hacker from Viral Booster and Jakub Svoboda from tyinternety.cz, the Czech equivalent of Mashable. Both are very industrious and open-minded individuals. Besides, they have been to a countless number of boring conferences, so they know what to avoid.

It’s not only about the organizers, though. Social Marketers Summit will have a plenty of interesting people who will feed our minds with interesting topics. I’m looking forward to these three speakers. I am sure there will be more

Erica Swallow, an Editorial Assistant at Mashable: Community projects on the rise we have not heard about much yet. I have no idea what I should imagine under the title of this presentation, but it sounds intriguing.

Marek Prchal, a freelance idea maker: PR and social media in commercial sector. This man is a Czech social media trailblazer and it would be very interesting to hear about the thought processes and assumptions that have led to his innovative campaings.

Josef Slerka, the chief of R&D at Ataxo Interactive: Seeing is believing, measuring is knowing. The social media, and especially online PR is suffering from the lack of clear and objective measurement. Josef’s talk isn’t likely to bring anything new into the discussion, but I am hoping to learn how to set the objectives in a way, so they can be tracked and measured.

Update: Josef will not talk about measurement and analytics – I misunderstood what he is going to talk about. The speech bears the title of Selling users is good business. As far as I know, the speech should be geared towards utilising data mined from the social media.

I hope that I gave you enough of reasons for visiting the conference. For more information, look at www.socialsummit.cz or their Facebook page.

Based originally on Darren Rowse’s idea and Eliška Hutníková’s call for localisation, I have decided to take on the seven link challenge.  It’s really simple – dig into your blogging history, share with us your jewels of blogging and follow the hashtag #7linksCZ on Twitter. The international version of the hashtag is #7links.

• My first post – I still like those topics I came up with, by the way.
• A post I enjoyed writing the most – The Consitency Problem
• A post which had a great discussion – Did You Get My Press Release?
• A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written – 5 ways not to handle reputation management by Ian Lurie
• Your most helpful post – That wasn’t a post, that was a series about job hunt
• A post with a title that you are proud of – The PR Talent Pool Could Use Some Chlorine
• A post that you wish more people had read – In Praise of Thoughtful Communication

If you are interested what some other Czech bloggers came up with, take a look at Eikasia blog by Honza Páv.

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