This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans (Create a Strategy to Elevate Your Career, Community & Life)

by Seth Godin

Cultural systems evolve, layer by layer. In 1759, Josiah Wedgwood used new production techniques to bring the world a refined, mass-produced set of china and pottery. In 1843, Ada Lovelace did the groundbreaking work that informs computer programming to this day. John Wanamaker pioneered the price tag in 1861. By 1911, Frederick Taylor had published his ideas on scientific management, dramatically increasing productivity and quality. In 1951, Lillian (Vernon) Hochberg began her direct mail campaigns. The ubiquitous steel shipping container, first used in 1956, made shipping finished products around the world far more reliable and cheaper as well, enabling companies like Walmart to eventually transform retail. The toll-free number, launched by AT&T in 1967, connected consumers directly to companies, allowing them to use credit cards, launched in 1950, to buy things directly. Ethical email marketing, created by Yoyodyne in 1992, opened the door to electronic ordering, which was amplified dramatically by the adoption of web browsers a few years later. And then Amazon wove it all together.