My early experiences in the industry and my readings of Peter Drucker over the years made me very interested in understanding the power of demographic knowledge. We're in process of developing demographic products with the firm ExpliStats, as we have mentioned in some prior columns. This particular item caught my attention. It's an animated map of the USA that is adjusted for the economic production of local economies. The article in MarketWatch is very good, and the map is fascinating to see.

* * *

Apple stock is under pressure. It's no longer the highest valued company in the world. Alphabet, which we used to know as Google, is now in that lofty position. One analyst believes that Apple's Tim Cook is not the CEO he's claimed to be, calling him insane. Since summer 2011, Cook has been in charge and Apple's stock has gained about a percentage point per year. It's been volatile, of course. In comparison, though, the S&P 500 has increased by about 30% and the NASDAQ more than 40%. The analyst is Trip Chowdhry at Global Equities Research, and he's made lots of forecast calls on Apple's performance, and has often been belittled by the Apple bulls. He says “Obviously, share buybacks and dividends are not working, and somehow the current CFO thinks that doing the same thing over and over again may generate different results.” There is more concern today about Apple than there has been in many years. There seems to be a lull in the new product pipeline. iPhone dominates its financials now, and sales of tablets are slowing (because the iPhone has gotten larger and better) and computer sales have slowed (while Apple's competitors sales have tanked). The Apple story will continue to be interesting this next year, and is worth watching just for what we might learn about managing. It could be 1980s IBM for this time: riding high for a long while and then can't find ways keep it going.

* * *

Our affiliate publication Digital Nirvana had a good post prepared by Heidi Tolliver-Walker about implementing change. She quotes from the foreword of UnSquaring The Wheel by Global Thinking's Jon Budington. He's also in the Printing Hall of Fame for his ability to deal with, and get ahead of, changes in the marketplace.

* * *

I stumbled into this creative approach for the selling of what is sometimes a product that does not have much differentiation. My journey started when I clicked to a presentation on Slideshare about the 25 most common grammatical errors. I figured I should know what they are so I could write really swell for my readers. (Sorry, I could not resist.) The last page brings you to the the authors page for editing services, bookbutchers.com. The content is also on their blog.

The reason I like the site is that they spell out their pricing scheme in plain language. You'd want that from an editorial service, wouldn't you? I have no idea how they are doing, but it struck me as a marvelous approach that implies a good business relationship, and their title of “bookbutchers” also gives them implicit permission to be blunt and aggressive with their client's work. If you're going to a butcher, you know what you're in for.

This brings up another point of discussion that I have had with printers about putting prices on their websites. Today's buyers of all goods and services have come to expect that there will be price information when they are searching for suppliers. Many printers are afraid to do that. I explain that the buyers want “ballpark” figures so they can know what to budget. This is especially important because the traditional print buyers, who knew a lot about print pricing, no longer exist in great numbers. The new buyers are used to paying for digital media programming and creative services, but not print. The “bookbutchers” show how it's done.