James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

Wherever I travel, whatever networking event I attend, there’s always one bloke or sheila who simply must tell me about the latest business bestseller or awe-inspiring autobiography that he/she has just finished reading.

AND I LOVE IT!

Working in magazines, you’d expect that I like to read. What you wouldn’t expect is that I sometimes find myself quite lonely, without anyone to talk with after reading the latest paradigm-shifting page-turner.

Part of the problem is that I often hear about about great books before they are launched in Australia (a perk of the job).

I promptly order them from Amazon, after which, I am forced to keep the many percolating thoughts running through my head to myself, until the said thought-jigger finally gets a release down-under.

So, here’s my idea…

Would you like to help me launch an Anthill bookclub?

We’ll try our best to get the best new books - for free, at cost or for  a discount. We’ll send them to our bookclub members - monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly (you decide). Then, we’ll open an online forum whereby we can share our thoughts.

I’m hoping that I can convince the Australian book publishers to back it. What Australian publisher wouldn’t want a select group of local ‘influencers’ to get their hands on a pre-release item for discussion and potential idea dissemination in advance?

So, if this sounds like something that you’d like to be involved in, click here. I’m not promising anything. I’m just keen to get expressions of interest.

And while we’re at it, why not share your thoughts on that awesome business book or autobiography that recently inspired you? I’m sure the rest of Anthill’s blogging community would be interested (call them your ’stocking stuffer tips’).

I know I would be. Or am I just a big book nerd?

James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

Not so long ago, I received an email sporting the colourful headline, “I am pissed off Mr ‘ethical businessman’.”

Receiving the odd spray is all part and parcel of the job. If someone is overtly rude, I usually hit the ‘delete’ button and get on with my day.

But while I don’t mind people criticising one of my opinions (or those of our writers), which we usually put out there to start a discussion, I didn’t like his suggestion that I might have acted in some way ‘unethically’.

So, understandably, I was compelled to click ‘open’ and find out what he was on about.

I’m glad I did because here’s what I found…

Hello James,

I’ve noticed your “competition” for a cover and I wonder if we live on the same planet Mr. Entrepreneur…

You are “offering” $400 (without even mentioning the royalties for the Internet usage) and you expect….

Exactly what?

Gratitude?

I find your “offer” so insulting, I even wonder why I bother to write to you.

The Australian Freelance Rates for Australian Artists (from the year 1997 - SIC ! state very clearly:

Artists:

Colour full page $1047.00

Colour cover    $ 1257.00

You are either ignorant of the basic rights of Australian Artists, Designers, Illustrators etc. or you “think” they are a bunch of imbeciles and you can screw them any way you like.

Think again.

I can do a brilliant and “outstanding”"artwork” “design” “illustration” etc. according to your brief and within the deadline however if you are not prepared to pay the most basic rate than you will be going down the hill faster than you think ( do you realize you are using some visual ideas which were done about twenty years ago in Australia and about forty years ago in Europe ?)

An image/picture is worth a thousand words as every donkey knows however only a donkey is not prepared to pay properly for such a work.

It’s rather simple… Isn’t it.

Calling yourself an “ethical businessman” under those circumstances is quite bizarre.

I have a suggestion for you and if you are interested to hear it give me a call.

Sure I’m pissed off… what do you expect?

This was followed by a name and mobile phone number.

The email was prompted by a blog post, as part of our Magazine 2.0 Experiment, whereby we thought it might be interesting to place our cover in the hands of crowd-sourcing design website 99designs.

The site offers a prize (in this case US$400) for the ‘chosen’ design that best suits a particular brief. Businesses use the site to crowd-source the design of their logos, advertisements, webpages, all sorts of jobs.

The designers who sell their wares on the site are based all over the world.

Reading this email, my first impression was that I had somehow been hit with the strangest pitching style I’ve ever encountered: Insult me to get my work.

On a second run through, I began to perhaps empathise with the sender, catching a glimpse of his pain, for reasons that I hope my response will explain…

Hi XXXXXXX,

Perhaps our experiment was shortsighted in some ways.

But I have to keep reminding people, it’s only an experiment (a one off) and we have limited the design element to the cover.

Some elements of magazine publishing have lent themselves very well to the online ‘crowd-sourcing’ model.

Others have not.

But as a magazine that espouses the virtues of innovation (and ethical business), it would feel two-faced to not apply the experiment to every aspect that we can contemplate.

We are pushing the boundaries of an old model and I can’t apologise for that.

However, I do understand your frustration.

For example, as a publisher / business owner, I’m still grappling with the notion that the market expects me to give up all our information for FREE on the internet - valuable content that we have paid journalists, photographers, illustrators and designers a great deal for.

But I also need to accept that new ways are constantly evolving for the production of books, magazines, music, cars, almost anything that we can think off.

While we have always argued vigorously among publishing circles that design is worth paying a high price for (and, indeed, design represented 30% of my budget on our first three editions), we also need to acknowledge that disruptive change happens.

It’s not much of an explanation/apology and I can’t predict how the market will treat professionals involved in areas affected by crowd-sourcing (such as music production, journalism, design… even encyclopedia salespeople) but I can assure you that we take design seriously and deeply respect anyone who is able to make a career out of personal creativity (something we try to do at Anthill every day, even if it sometimes has the effect of alienating some people).

I hope that my email doesn’t sound ignorant or insulting and that you appreciate my candid response. It is an area that I have thought a lot about.

With your permission, I would also like to post your email in my blog, as I think the discussion surrounding the points you make would be interesting to our readers.

You have touched on a broader debate about the affect the internet and other digital products are having on many industries (in a similar way to the impact that the printing press had on stable professions, such as the humble scribe).

Thank you for taking the time to write your email and I look forward to your reply.

Kind regards

James Tuckerman

Okay, I concede, my email does sound a bit patronising, but I was wrestling with emotions of anger, caused by the email’s unnecessary tone, and sympathy for a range of professions (including my own).

A couple days later, the sender responded, declining my invitation to participate in the broader discussion, in equally colourful terms. As such, I have withheld his/her name and any information that could be used to identify the sender.

Because… my anonymous friend does raise an extremely topical dilemma.

Through initiatives such as our Magazine 2.0 Experiment are we helping Australian companies sink or swim?

Is this just another example of market evolution or are we sending our creative communities down the river by embracing crowd-sourcing technologies?

Talk to me Anthillians (preferably without the insults).

James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

When people pick up Anthill for the first time, they often ask, “Is Anthill just for young entrepreneurs?” My answer is a resounding, “No.”

Anthill is not for young entrepreneurs.

Rather, it is for people young in mindset (irrespective of age).

I then get asked, “But isn’t entrepreneurship a young person’s game?”

To begin answering this question, here’s a snapshot of our readership…

As you can see, a clear majority are over 35. And further, these statistics only represent the people who subscribe online.

There seems to be a misconception that innovation is only for minds untethered by the binds of experience.

Living legends, who spawned vast empires from dorm-rooms and suburban garages, such as Gates, Jobs, Brin and Page, perpetuate the idea. And media outlets (including Anthill) love to spruik the success of young gun entrepreneurs.

Why wouldn’t we!

But, if that’s the case, if entrepreneurship is only for the young, why are our statistics so back to front?

In the words of WIRED Magazine:

The twentysomething Web prodigies are fun and all, but the veteran visionaries will save the world.

A recent study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation surveyed 652 US-born CEOs and heads of product development who founded high-tech firms in the boom (and bust) years of 1995 to 2005 and discovered that both the average and median ages were 39 - far older than the mythic dorm-room visionary.

What’s more, the chronologically advanced are especially successful at solving the problems that we desperately need solved:

Mature entrepreneurs tend to launch startups that require huge amounts of capital - biotech companies, energy firm, outfits that make expensive hardware. Then, to take their innovation to market, they have to navigate complex entrenched industries, which requires connections.

Whereas the fearless (and perhaps naive) young’ens will not hesitate to throw their attention at a cool, new social networking app, because the startup costs are so low, while the rewards are so great (apparently), the older folks seem stuck with the heavy lifting - solar energy, health tech, energy efficient transport etc.

Whitney Houston once crooned, “I believe the children are our future.” Maybe she, too, had it back to front.

James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

Earlier this year, one of my favourite US business magazines, Fast Company, made the following observation:

Win or lose, Barack’s rise reveals a new reality in the marketplace.

The fact that Obama has taken what we thought we knew about politics and turned it into a different game for a different generation is no longer news.

What Obama’s success says about business is the far more interesting story.

But first, what has the 47 year-old President-Elect pledged for the economy…

1. Tax cuts (Individuals): Immediate tax cuts ($500 for individuals, $500 for families) for households making less than $25,000 and for retired senior citizens making up to $50,000.
2. Tax cuts (Businesses): Eliminate capital gains taxes on small and start-up business investments, In 2009 and 2010, give businesses a $3,000 income tax credit for each new employee they hire above their current work force.
3. Job creation: Invest $25bn to repair roads and bridges and to make schools energy efficient. Double loan guarantees for automakers to $50bn.

What does this mean?

Quite simply, his pledges are about putting more money back into the market, so that punters will start spending again and, hopefully, jump start the economy.

It’s not rocket science.

Cutting taxes is a safe bet. Spending on capital works also has a proven heritage.

While eliminating capital gains for some business activities and creating incentives to hire new staff is genuinely inspired (bring it on!), what will be more interesting to watch is the potential effect that ‘Brand Obama’ will have on the US psychology.

Politics, after all, is about marketing.

It’s about projecting and selling an image, stoking aspirations, moving people to identify, evangelise and, of course, consume.

Will brand Obama inject optimism into the market? Is his way of doing things a wake-up call for business - get authentic or take a hike? Are his movements genuine signals for marketers, including those in Australia?

It seems that any forward-thinking business would be wise to examine the implications of his ascent, from his inclusive approach to leadership to the social networking tools his campaign used to raise funds, populate events and, ultimately, win votes.

I’ll leave the last word to Fast Company:

The promotion of the brand called Obama is a case study of where the American marketplace - and potentially, the global one - is moving.

His openness to the way consumers today communicate with one another, his recognition for the desire of ‘authentic’ products and his understanding of the need for a new global image - are all valuable signals for marketers everywhere.