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What a bizarre week for non-rainmaking wannabe’s. First we have Rep. Joe Wilson shouting at President Obama and calling him a liar during a live address to the nation (and the world). And then last night, the irrepressible and always self-obsessed Kanye West jumps on stage at the Video Music Awards show, grabs the microphone from Taylor Swift as she’s accepting her award, and announces that (in his humble opinion) Swift did not deserve the award and it should have been presented to Beyonce... Read Full Story

Michael Resler, professor of German studies at Boston College, used a classic rainmaking technique to boost flagging enrollment in his “German Literature of the High Middle Ages” course. He renamed the course “Knights, Castles and Dragons” and immediately tripled enrollment. Similarly, Jessica Holmes, an economics professor at Middlebury College, has enjoyed considerable interest in her “Economics of Sin” course that examines the societal impact of gambling, prostitution, and the drug trade... Read Full Story

Rainmaker marketing, at its core, is easy. It’s the blocking and tackling that we practice diligently and then capitalize upon on game day. Because GEICO owns the “so easy a caveman can do it” analogy, I’m going to argue that rainmaking is so easy a dog could do it. The dog I’m thinking of is Enzo, the narrator of Garth Stein’s delightful novel “The Art of Racing in the Rain.” Enzo is nearing the end of his life and, as he tells his master’s story, he informs us that he fully expects to be... Read Full Story

The Abilene paradox was introduced about 20 years ago by Jerry Harvey. In a nutshell, it describes the all-too-common phenomenon of groupthink whereby a group of individuals agree on a course of action that none of them truly believes in. It’s a consensus based solely on the lack of dissension. The Abilene paradox is often [...] Read Full Story

Did you ever notice how you often do your best work when you’re most under the gun? It seems like the closer the deadline and the more pressure there is to perform at peak ability, the better we do. It’s a trait that is virtually universal among rainmakers, and it now has some scientific basis to explain the whys and wherefores. “When Losing Leads to Winning” is a just-published study by two Wharton professors, Jonah Berger and Devin Pope. The authors postulate that “through increasing... Read Full Story

There was a great article in the Boston Globe this week about the pre-game routine of the Celtics’ sweet-shooting Ray Allen. Anyone who has seen Allen play swears the guy is a natural. He’s focused, his release is silky smooth, and the arc of the ball is pure magic. Put it all together and it looks like he’s hardly trying; but that’s actually the result of trying so hard to get it perfect. Allen is one of the most diligent and disciplined athletes in the NBA or any other sport. He gets to the... Read Full Story

Without getting into the merits of the potential bailout of the not-so-Big Three automakers, from a pure rainmaking, marketing, and rational-thinking perspective, it is truly mind-boggling that all three of the supplicant CEOs flew to Washington today in private jets. This on the exact same day that GM ran a full-page ad highlighting its enterprise-wide commitment to reduce expenses and work smarter. The irony of this was not lost on the Congressional committee members, and it points out the... Read Full Story

In today’s post (http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2123/35817154), Seth Godin, one of the best marketing minds of our generation, loses his mind. He’s writing about presentations and the tendency for speakers to go on far too long, and he suggests that, “No audience member, in the history of presentations (written or live) has ever said, ‘it was exciting, useful and insightful but far too short’.” Now I fully understand Seth’s point, and he is correct that most speakers abuse the privilege... Read Full Story

As the global economic meltdown continues, there is one potential bright spot — Apple. While Apple stock has been hit just as hard as most every other domestic and international equity (and is trading near its 52-week low), Jim Cramer and a lot of other Wall Street pundits have “strong buy” recommendations on the company. Why is that and what could it possibly have to do with rainmaker marketing? The short answer is that Apple represents the Platonic ideal of corporate rainmaking. In an... Read Full Story

As the 2008 presidential election draws to a close, I am haunted by one nagging question: “Will we ever have a rainmaker-style president?” And I’ll try to address this question without announcing my vote or getting into the politics of this highly political issue. What bothers me most about this campaign is that both candidates, actually all four candidates counting Biden and Palin, make the mistake of talking too much about themselves, too much about their opponent, and way too little... Read Full Story