Friday, April 23, 2010

You An App Yet?

I don't have a bank anymore. Nope. I have an app.

New York Times used to be my morning newspaper. Not anymore. Now it's my morning app.

Seth Godin? Once upon a time he was a great blogger. Now he's a great app.

Is your business an app yet?

Even better, anyone in your business an app yet?

If I was a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a sales guy, a customer service rep, a member of Congress, or anyone else who has a brain and uses it at work, I'd turn myself into an app asap.

If I was a doctor app I could scale myself and help people with daily health tips all day and all night.

Who knows how healthy my patients would be if my daily doctor app made a house call on their hand-held device asking "So, what did you eat today?" Or "How did you exercise today?" Or "How much you weighing these days?"

If I was a lawyer app my best counsel to the best questions people asked at my office each week could be posted and available.

Imagine containing the knowledge of our complicated legal system AND the expensive billing rate of your lawyer in the palm of your hand someday.

And what if teachers and professors were all apps with daily lessons for students at their school, and the school at the next town over, and maybe the next state over and even the next country over?

Forget tight budgets. What school administrator's going to lay off a teacher who's an app?

Sales guys and customer service reps as apps would be a dream come true for people about to buy or who just bought your product. Customers and prospects always need more info.

If everyone in your sales-and-service force became the go-to apps in your industry, what's the competition going to do? No telling how how sales will grow when you've made each of your sales and services reps' into idea and knowledge apps that are infinitely scaleable and uniquely personal.

Oh, and how great would it be if everyone in Congress was an app? Wouldn't you love the chance to delete your Congress-person when he or she got buggy?

We'd all be a lot smarter and way more productive if we could extend and monitor ourselves, and analyze our interactions as an app.

Imagine all this thoughtfulness available and delivered to dozens, hundreds, thousands of people wanting, needing to tap into each of our unique gifts.

Imagine all the valuable information that forms around you the app, and your community.

If I was starting a business today I might start The App Shop. Like the Apple Store, The App Shop would be a place you'd walk into. Where you could find smart people behind the Human Bar to give you a helping hand when you wish to be an app for this or that.

Smart people say we've entered the knowledge economy.

I wonder if becoming an app is the smart way of setting up shop these days.

--tim

twitter tjmorin

2 comments:

  1. Tim:

    Two thoughts to consider from your post today:

    1. As a kid Mike Mason's dad ,Tom, used to ask me every time he saw me, "What are you weighing these days?" He never made a dime off of it. Thank God I'm not asked that these days.

    2. Those who say we've entered the "knowledge economy" don't know how to make a living other than coming up with trite sayings. The real question for America is: "How do you grow and build an economy based on stock brokers and coffee shops?" I don't have an answer for that.

    Ernie
    Class of '77

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ernie-- you become an app for that!!!!

    ReplyDelete