Last night’s Mad Men episode was one of my favorites of the season. The content would still make my parents blush but the elements of business, client management and strategic direction are a lot of fun to watch. It’s noteworthy that Mad Men has more adult viewers aged 25-54 with household income greater than $100,000 of any show on cable. People in business love this show. I think anyone who has experienced landing or losing a large client can’t help but contemplate what the characters’ personal distractions might mean to their business and to a greater extent, the idea of managing clients on the merit of your work and the marriage of your creative vision and the client need. The big names are fun too. Jaguar. Heinze. Chevy. Vicks. One thing has not changed over the last 6 seasons; the creative vision of Don Draper.
It is important that companies have a defined vision. A previous Mad Men business lesson was knowing who you are, an apropos theme given the seemingly fruitless quest for identity demonstrated by Roger on the therapists couch and Don on the bed of half of the wives in Manhattan. But having a vision, and articulating that vision end where execution begins. Blogger Kelli Claypool maps out a good starting point for putting your business vision on paper http://drmommyonline.com/why-a-vision-statement-is-vital-to-the-success-of-your-business. Harvard Business Review writers James Collins and Jerry Porras take it a step further. In a dated article http://hbr.org/1996/09/building-your-companys-vision/ they talk about the importance of maintain vision in the midst of changing landscapes. The concept of core ideology and envisioned future is an interesting one. “ The Walt Disney Company’s core values of imagination and wholesomeness stem not from market requirements but from the founder’s inner belief that imagination and wholesomeness should be nurtured for their own sake.”
Mad Men are ad men. They are in a business that requires a deep level of understanding about human psychology and American consumer habits in an age where data and demographics have not come to inform the advertising game. Understanding a client’s needs and desires and those of the consumer are prerequisite to the creative drafting table. The irony of Mad Men is that a man incapable of understanding himself has an innate ability to understand the desires of others and that is a vision from which SCDP has rarely deviated and why they have been successful, despite themselves. Check out this clip from an early episode.
It crystallizes the creative vision of Don Draper, which is to say the vision of SCDP.
February 12, 2025
Have you ever purchased a used car where the price tag was cheap? You may find yourself a week after the purchase at the intersection of 72nd and Dodge during the morning commute with a blown transmission and regret over a financial decision based solely on saving some money. Talk about a lemon of a […]
November 14, 2024
When you think about how Volano Software employees spend their time, you may envision one of our developers in jeans and their favorite gaming t-shirt-wearing headphones working on custom software. Well, that would probably be accurate. However, we also enjoy watching educational videos about workflow on YouTube in our free time. Yeah. We’re predictable. On […]
October 9, 2024
Volano Software further commits to the Omaha community by partnering with NAM to offer custom software solutions to nonprofits in Nebraska and Western Iowa. Omaha, NE, October 2024 — Volano Software, a custom software development company, is proud to announce its partnership with the Nonprofit Association of the Midlands (NAM). This partnership brings Volano Software […]
September 28, 2024
Finding a software solution to solving a business challenge can be overwhelming. We have been helping clients find the best approach for their industry challenges since 2007. The result has always been a solution based on your unique situation for a better workflow. One of the most popular questions we hear is whether to buy […]
August 21, 2024
Fall is nearly here. That means students return to school, parents settle into their routines, and summer vacations are distant memories. It also means that the Volano Summer Internship Program is now a wrap. Our two summer interns, Daniel and Micah have packed up and returned to their Fall Semester of school. Before they left, […]
August 20, 2024
OMAHA, NEBRASKA, Volano Software Company Applications for the Nebraska Innovation Fund (NIF) Prototype Grants are open now for Nebraska-based businesses searching to take their business tech from a napkin sketch to a full-blown prototype. At Volano Software, we are highly familiar with this program. In 2023, we were awarded the matching grant for our software […]