Matt is a husband & father of two, a marketing and communications strategist, business alignment expert, and a designer of things and experiences.

As the founder and lead strategist of Infusion, Matt speaks regularly at workshops, events, and conferences, helping organizations to align their strategies, platforms, and experiences.

An entrepreneur, Matt has founded multiple organizations including a successful marketing company and a commercial printing firm. His work as a strategist, creative director, and thought leader has been published in trade magazines, newspapers, and online.

Throughout his career, Matt has worked with over 500 clients, designing or consulting on more than 350 brands. His clients have ranged from the Fortune 100 to "Main Street" startups.

Matt tweets about alignment for mission-driven and for-benefit enterprises @mattdsimpson.

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How NOT to close a location - LattéLand Fails…


This morning I pulled up to my favorite local coffee shop, LattéLand at 135th & 69 Highway in Overland Park, a locally owned coffee shop with eight or nine locations in KC, to find a sign that read: “THIS LATTE LAND CLOSED, please visit us at…”  When I saw the sign on the door I was shocked - I actually said “Nooooo!” out loud.  

I knew this place would likely be making a move, or a change of some kind.  There’d been some back and forth with the developer of the building and a “for sale / lease” sign was placed out front at the beginning of the year.  As soon as it went up, the manager of the store posted a signs all over the place stating that they were NOT going out of business or moving - the owner was just in a negotiation with the landlord.  Made sense, but I suspected there was likely something going down - I’ve been around the block a few times and usually there is more to a story like this, even if the staff isn’t aware - so I was cautiously optimistic.  What I did NOT expect was to pull up one day and see a “WE’RE CLOSED NOW - TOUGH CRAP” sign on the front door.  How about a few days notice, maybe a week?  

Look, I get it.  I’ve owned several small businesses over the years - the last for over a decade.  Business is business.  If the sales aren’t there you’ve got to make a change and workers are not going to stick around if you tell them you’re shutting the doors.  Plus people are going to find someplace else to go if there is too much notice too soon.  I’m not advocating for a 30 day countdown, but for the loyal customers that come to a place every day (the ones you’d want to convert to a new location) you need to think about how to get them to want to make the move.  

Every morning, and I mean every morning, five or six days a week (sometimes seven) I started my day off either inside or in the drive thru.  I’ve come to know most all the folks that work there on a first name basis and they always ask if I want my “regular”.  When I stopped by as usual yesterday morning, I had some meaningless banter with everyone and then left - telandI had no idea it would be the last time I’d likely see them again.  Makes me sad that I didn’t have a chance to say thanks for the great job they did, to tip them all one last time, and to maybe connect so we could stay in touch.  I’ll miss them and thank them for getting my day started off just right for the last few years.

As a customer, I am disappointed in how LattéLand handled this closing.  There were many mixed messages (I don’t blame the staff at all - they were doing what they were told), but I sort of feel lied to.  

Like a good capitalist I vote with my wallet.  Given that there aren’t any convenient locations to where I work and live - I will be taking my business elsewhere at this time.  In fact, just on principle I doubt I’ll be buying much coffee from these folks in the near future.  Too bad, we had a good thing going all these years.  Makes me a little sad. 

Here’s to hoping my brother, Tom, expands and opens a Coffee Ethic in KC someday.  One can hope…

emergentfutures: Sony develops power outlet that can recognize devices and users Sony has developed a power outlet that can identify devices plugged into it, as well as individuals using the plug. The company says such technology could allow the electricity usage of individual devices to be monitored so non-essential devices could be switched off remotely in the event of limited electricity supply, or for the billing of customers charging their electric vehicles or mobile devices in public places. Full Story: Gizmag

emergentfutures:

Sony develops power outlet that can recognize devices and users

Sony has developed a power outlet that can identify devices plugged into it, as well as individuals using the plug. The company says such technology could allow the electricity usage of individual devices to be monitored so non-essential devices could be switched off remotely in the event of limited electricity supply, or for the billing of customers charging their electric vehicles or mobile devices in public places.


Full Story: Gizmag

studio630: The Future of the City: Crowd-Sourcing & Gamification of City 2.0 By Kyle Rogler, Studio630 This summer Google will install a 1-gigabyte internet speed cable in Kansas City, which is a hundred times faster than the average broadband cable. This new asset will help revolutionize Kansas City’s technology infrastructure, but no one knows exactly how to utilize it to its fullest potential. James Moore proposes a novel idea which could generate interest back toward the city through crowd-sourcing and gamification of urban design. Read more at ThisBigCity

studio630:

The Future of the City: Crowd-Sourcing & Gamification of City 2.0

By Kyle Rogler, Studio630

This summer Google will install a 1-gigabyte internet speed cable in Kansas City, which is a hundred times faster than the average broadband cable. This new asset will help revolutionize Kansas City’s technology infrastructure, but no one knows exactly how to utilize it to its fullest potential. James Moore proposes a novel idea which could generate interest back toward the city through crowd-sourcing and gamification of urban design.

Read more at ThisBigCity

emergentfutures: Do E-Books Make It Harder to Remember What You Just Read? Digital books are lighter and more convenient to tote around than paper books, but there may be advantages to old technology. Paul Higgins: The evidence here seems a bit flimsy but it is a reasonable question to ask. The wider question must be in the context of how those e-books are used more generally. If I carry around a set of important e-books on my iPad and keep referring to them for information then that is likely to reinforce my knowledge more than the paper versions which I could never physically carry around in the same way. There are also social questions to ask with new sharing and annotating systems developing. The question of learning has to be in the context of how the e-books are used in total. Full Story: Time

emergentfutures:

Do E-Books Make It Harder to Remember What You Just Read?



Digital books are lighter and more convenient to tote around than paper books, but there may be advantages to old technology.
Paul Higgins: The evidence here seems a bit flimsy but it is a reasonable question to ask. The wider question must be in the context of how those e-books are used more generally. If I carry around a set of important e-books on my iPad and keep referring to them for information then that is likely to reinforce my knowledge more than the paper versions which I could never physically carry around in the same way. There are also social questions to ask with new sharing and annotating systems developing. The question of learning has to be in the context of how the e-books are used in total.



Full Story: Time

'How Creativity Works': It's All In Your Imagination

npr:

What makes people creative? What gives some of us the ability to create work that captivates the eyes, minds and hearts of others? Jonah Lehrer, a writer specializing in neuroscience, addresses that question in his new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works.

Lehrer defines creativity broadly, considering everything from the invention of masking tape to breakthroughs in mathematics; from memorable ad campaigns to Shakespearean tragedies. He finds that the conditions that favor creativity — our brains, our times, our buildings, our cities — are equally broad.

Lehrer joins NPR’s Robert Siegel to talk about the creative process — where great ideas come from, how to foster them, and what to do when you inevitably get stuck.

Apple's Cash Plan

parislemon:

In the end, it was the fairly obvious thing: dividend + stock buyback. Starting in July, Apple will begin offering a quarterly dividend of $2.65-a-share. And in September, they’ll initiate a $10 billion stock buyback (which will be executed over three years). 

Pretty straightforward and both moves will ensure that Apple will continue to have a ton of cash.

Tim Cook:

We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You’ll see more of all of these in the future. Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.

Nobody Gives A Damn About Google+

Pardon the explicative(s) (as always with reposts) - but he’s right.

parislemon:

Ouch.

A quote from that site I refuse to link to:

Visitors using personal computers spent an average of about three minutes a month on Google+ between last September and January, versus six to seven hours on Facebook each month over the same period, according to comScore, which didn’t have data on mobile usage.

3 minutes versus seven hours. I mean, 3 minutes!

The sad thing is: I bet when mobile usage is counted, the gap is actually worse.

We keep hearing over and over how Google+ is on the up-and-up — from Google. 10 million sign-ups here. A billion more there. So many fucking sign-ups.

The reality of the situation sure seems to be the opposite. The only people I know that use Google+ regularly are people who work at Google (and Robert Scoble). 

It’s just not working. For fundamental reasons. Millions more in TV ad spend won’t fix that. 

morganmissen: Caterina Fake cited this timeline to 50M users on why the worst thing a social network can do is force growth. “My perspective is it takes a while to grow this stuff,” she said to Liz Gannes in AllThingsD. “It takes time for the culture to grow. You need time to develop antibodies to spammers and trolls.” Adding user registrations at such a fast pace doesn’t leave enough time for a dedicated, engaged user community to organically create itself and establish norms, she argued.

morganmissen:

Caterina Fake cited this timeline to 50M users on why the worst thing a social network can do is force growth. “My perspective is it takes a while to grow this stuff,” she said to Liz Gannes in AllThingsD. “It takes time for the culture to grow. You need time to develop antibodies to spammers and trolls.” Adding user registrations at such a fast pace doesn’t leave enough time for a dedicated, engaged user community to organically create itself and establish norms, she argued.

(via emergentfutures)