I was 15 years old when my math teacher called me a wop, day after day, in class.  I was 32 years old when, in a room full of men from a PR agency, after I questioned their recommendations over a process I controlled, my boss said to me, "Damn it, Mary, we’re going to do this like white people." 

Like a lot of other people, I learned that there are no guarantees, even in a society designed to protect every individual.  A group of young women just got the very same lesson, 3,000 miles away. Having to rise above the baser side of human nature is an inevitable chore of life.  What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  Etc.

In the case at hand, the nasty remarks were only the most recent in a string of defamatory jokes on a program that is entertaining and thought-provoking without them.  If  NBC/MSNBC and WFAN had given producers firmer boundaries months ago, the program — broadcast via radio, television and the internet — might have become an example of how to be funny without being mean.  Of course, the newsrooms wouldn’t be able to hash and re-hash the incident and its aftermath 24/7 as they have since it happened, inviting all of us to rubber-neck the collision so they can report higher numbers to the advertisers.

And if my boss’s partners and HR minions had acted years ago to punish my boss — for that remark, a bunch of others he made and actions he took — perhaps that man would not be insidiously promoting his "not our kind, dear" attitudes via his position on several Silicon Valley public company boards or his association with one of the country’s premier ethics institutes.  Yes, an ethics institute.

The math teacher was called on the carpet, but he was a bully until the first day of summer.  He just found other ways to be himself.

So what does all this have to do with branding and market engagement? 

I know I believe that the best products and services are built from a foundation of respect for challenging questions and doubting Thomases, no matter how much they bruise the egos of inventors and managers.  The most successful businesses invite all their people to the table.  The only camps that matter are who lobbies for what product feature and what will sell.   

I suppose you could say that something’s working for this particular program, since it gets such high viewer numbers.  I’d rather think that people are holding their noses during the bad parts while they wait for the meaningful discussions with guests.  Maybe that’s a pipe dream.

If this program does remain on the airwaves, I hope this episode really does signal a change in how funny is defined.  And it would be great if all the people involved in producing it understand that they have not just disrespected the people they demeaned, they disrespected all of us.  They disrespected our laws, even if they didn’t break them.  I’d sure hate to see free speech become a dusty theory just because we don’t know how to honor it or the spirit in which it became part of our cultural legacy.

In the meantime, I hope all of us have more than enough support and appreciation, every day, to counteract the bitterness and hard edges that can form after an encounter with a bully.  That would be a triumph. 

A February KnowledgeStorm/MarketingSherpa survey, covered today by the Center for Media Research, points to white papers as the "most frequently read" form of marketing content.

White papers are easy to do as long as you have real products and services to describe.  The difficult part, corroborated by the survey results, is presenting them in terms of the user’s needs and expectations.

In any conversation — oral, written, rich media — with any stakeholder, you must show how the stakeholder’s needs drive the development and shape of what you are selling.  In fact, the white paper is an excellent tool for forcing your organization to define, specifically, the philosophy and features of your products.  Plus, the process of producing the white paper delivers rarely-stated benefits:  discipline over the marketing process, the internal message that you value reality over fantasy, professional respect for the marketing function.

I’ve found that when I can’t help a client produce a lucid white paper, it usually means there’s vapor in them thar hills.  It’s a frequent problem with startups.  The flip side of incorporating market need into marketing strategy is, many startups over-compensate in defining the obvious market while they underplay an under-designed technology.  The white paper process can flush out the snake oil or lead you to the moonshine still.  I’ve learned to make the white paper the very first tactic of a startup marketing plan.

A good white paper intrigues a stakeholder while it differentiates your organization from all other players — and it gets you closer to a brand label on that moonshine you’re cooking.

Dave has an excellent post today on entrepreneurs and VCs.  In it, he sends us to Rick Segal‘s post [useful comments, too]. 

Both pieces give candid advice on what to tell VCs — Rick when "topping off the round," Dave in general about understanding the nature of a VC conversation.  They bring to mind an experience I’ve had:  the entrepreneur who figured he could play different funding sources against each other by exaggerating the status of discussions with each.  The exec team learned about it too late — and only when he had told so many fibs that he couldn’t keep them straight. 

A couple of things.  Why would anyone of quality [a category I strive to join] want to continue an affiliation with someone who uses duplicity as a central negotiating strategy?  And how in the world do you keep track of all the fibs?

Turns out the entrepreneur was so scared about being bullied that he scared everyone off.  And that his fibs concerned more than the funding.  More next time.

And his Scripting News.  Dave shows us how technologists can continue to find joy and satisfaction in their work and connect it to other disciplines and perspectives.  Here’s to the next ten years.

Just heard Ian Wright, inventor of the Wrightspeed X1, talk about his creation.  There we were, south of Market at Club Sportiva — the automotive membership club — surrounded by Lamborghinis, Ferraris, a Lotus, a Jaguar and a Rolls Royce.  The only thing missing was James Bond.  And there Mr Wright was, with his X1, showing us the video proof that electric beats fossil every time on the racetrack.  At least it looked that way to me — I’m sure all the racing people out there can cut the numbers a million different ways.  [Documentary coming up on Discovery Channel.]  I thought, well, if this concept can be ported over to the racing industry, great.  What a waste of fuel.  Sorry, race fans.  But then, at the end of Wright’s presentation, there was the news that he’s planning to use the technology in SUVs!  Flawless logic:  the greatest consumption of fuel is not by the easy-to-enhance economy car segment but by our pickups and four wheel drives.  Wright figures, why not address the source of the most use.  Thank you to Business Association Italy America — BAIA — for hosting a terrific, hopeful presentation among some delightful motorcars.