There is a theory in business that I think applies to the Carlton Football Club called "The Innovator's Dilemma" Taken from the book entitled "The Innovator's Dilemma - When new technologies cause great firms to fail."

http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/christensen.htm

Basically it says that those companies that hone their skills in satisfying their existing customers end up being overtaken by companies that might have to struggle, but have created a new opportunities in the market place.

If we take for example the modern footballer and equate him to a new technology. For many years, as a result of Carlton's success, we have been reluctant to look embrace new technologies as we were pretty much afraid of what they would do to our existing business unit (hence our very ordinary draft record - actually scratch that I don't think our draft record has been worse than many others, what has been bad is our trading draft picks away for has-beens or old technologies).

Our key business area or what we produce is winning games and our stakeholders are sponsors, members (of all levels), fans. We sell our product to these.

As a company that has not embraced new technologies our product has suffered and as such we are losing market share and will continue to lose market share until this is addressed

At the moment we are in the situation where all the mechanisms of the club are tied to the old technologies. For example our board is filled with people that are not adept at handling new technology, our coaching staff seems to be of a similar ilk as we not programing our new technologies correctly or we are using outdated manuals.

As a result the new technologies that we begin to use are programmed to under perform. It is inherrent in the structure of the business.

New technologies can not program themselves, they need to be given the correct information to function correctly.

Of course now is a situation where we are at the bottom of the business (and notice in the title of the book they say how new technologies cause great firms to fail) and we have to develop the new technology that will not only compete on the playing field that we have now, but set the playing field for the future.

This means that we as a business have to start setting our own agenda, we have to find leaders with vision that say in five year's time the AFL will look like this... And if that is the case then we need, X, Y, Z type technology.

At the moment we have some beta versions of X type player, maybe a possible Z type, but I am not sure we have the management to program the technology to give us the best product.

If you take for example a club like Hawthorn, I think they have embraced this theory very well. They said that in order for them to be successful in five years they have to start reprograming all the technology they have at their disposal now.

They also seem to have a vision. They have strong and powerful leaders, an openess to talk about where they are going so their current customers feel like they are on the journey with them rather than being alienated.

They also have a vision for the future, right or wrong (and of course it is a gamble and they might not be proven correct, but hey they had to do something as treading water is what will kill your business) and they are prepared to follow it.

So what does all this mean? Well apart from being very self-indulgent on my part and long enough to be a Dannyboy post, well I'm not sure to be honest.

I guess it is my hope that by story telling the problem can be seen in a different light and if we take the emotions away we can see that we really need to do something...

It might mean taking our best technology today and trading that for three or four of the best potential technologies of the future. It might mean changing the leadership of the club to reflect someone with a vision of a future and an ability to back himself to take us there or it might just mean patience as we slowly but surely acquire new technologies as they become available.

But I tell you even if we get the best technology in the world if we can't find anyone to get the most out of it or is continually trying to play catch up then we will never be anywhere... Just look at St Kilda... They could be anything yet they are constantly nothing and they pants us all the time of late. So that speaks volumes of where we are and what we need....

Thanks for reading [/url]

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"our guest is dressed by hand-me-downs, hair designed by pillow"

yep

think you just used fancy words to say what Synners has been saying for years

Its sad though

my club, my club
wherefore art thou my club?

Ahh tis the winter of another shit load of discontent...will we ever see the sun again?

We need a new board, new vision, new ideas. It is time to forget the old Carlton and build a new one. We are so stuck we are sinking.....I'm drowning...I'm drowning... I remember that parrot in the old superman epidodes - Carlton is like that parrot, lost in a deep, dark tunnel waiting for a superman to rescue it.

Anyone got Che's number? Viva la revolution!

I'm so sick I want to bypass weekends.

the club is so sick its weak at both ends! And we need bookends. We've got Fev and an shit load of flooding headless chooks.

carlton is the new Eunich. Oh for some brass balls to get us through these cold winter months!

Alas poor Carlton we knew it well but there is something so rotten its got gangrene and does not appear to be healing. Lop off the head...Yes, yes off with our head, our arms and legs and anything else that's stuck in the past.

Give me a leader with vision and I'll give him a club that needs resussitation!

bedebedee That's all folks........ (cue music and silly captain carlton running into the distance whacking his head with an over-inflated premiership cup)

Oh how the mighty has fallen.

The King is dead.

Long live the new....Okay lets just dwindle off into the sunset - even John Wayne couldn't fill these boots....

'Shane....Shane....I love you Shane...'

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

I stand corrected... Actually longer than a Dannyboy post

And you're right. Might not be new, but you gotta love the analogy don't ya'

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"our guest is dressed by hand-me-downs, hair designed by pillow"

or

the most flexible unit holds the most power


so

Do not forsake me oh my darling!

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Well of course anyone could say it like that verbs

But you gotta admit it is one mother of a verbose post and I am in Denmark afterall...

You know somethings rotten...

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"our guest is dressed by hand-me-downs, hair designed by pillow"

hark what flood through yonder football oval breaks?

carlton is in the west and the football is in the east!

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Really cant be said any better... but that in a nutshell is whats wrong with the club...

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Fair call but the change required can't happen overnight without someone injecting serious cash flow (probably more than Pratt) and may not even require a radical change in staff.

Step 1 - Fix our issues with the lease
Step 2 - Acquire the services of business and PR savvy people
Step 3 - Brainstorm

If I said anything else I'd take talking out of my ass to a new level in your eyes.

I agree but raising funds for CFC should be the least difficult task in the world...

In another life I used to look after a portion of the fund raising for the Spastic Society of Victoria, a very unfashionable charity that used to have to fight tooth and nail for its very existence every year, especially in the light of reduced government funding.

If I was head of PR/marketing at CFC I would: (ok going into brainstorming mode now)... Yes I know there is threads with this in it, so sorry mods, feel free to put this in the right spot

* Establish a will and bequest program. Many, many people have bled Carlton their entire life and I am sure that there are some people who would like to include CFC in their wills.

* Use the women supporters more... Why not have a women of Carlton calendar. Carlton women are the sexiest women in the world and I am sure that if you teamed 12/13 of them up with a Carlton players you could make a good calendar.

You could ask for submissions prior to every home game and then people could sms(sorry I think it is called text in Oz) their votes into the club during the game and a winner announced at the end of the game. Of course the club makes a killing with the votes.

We could also find a sponsor for the calendar to pay for the promotion.

* Given our current form as well maybe we could have a competition for the 22nd spot on the Carlton team each week. The club could name three or four possibilities and then people could sms their choice. Again a lot of opposition supporters would partake in this to sabbotage us, yet we would be making money from them... Evil huh?

* Also something that the Miss Australia Awards did back in the 60's they had a competition where the Miss Australia participants had to earn their weight in coin... Imagine Kouta stuck in a glass both at Federation square needing to raise his weight in gold coins?

Ok, it is late, but Jesus it is so easy to raise money and get people involved... Incidently there was an American study that suggested that if you could get people to commit to a cause with their cash then their commitment will last forever as they have a vested interest in the cause...

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"our guest is dressed by hand-me-downs, hair designed by pillow"

Modern day businesspeople wont put in money or sponsor yesterdays ideaas...
Thats why theyre modern day businessmen..

Everything about us is not modern day...

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

worst company in australia

"change" is a process..... of coruse it won't happen over night without creating a massive culture shock that stifles change.

but that doesn't mean they can't make the steps now.

Is Pagan doing it? NO - not encouraging youth across the board in a formation that will allow them to grow

Are the board doing it? NO - panicking... no planning.... knee jerk responses

The first steps are to get the house in order for planning. Set an agenda for change, and map it out.. INCLUDING on the field

quickest way to do that is to replace the coach and start from scratch.... if we were worried that Pagan's lost the group, we'll be certain of it if we ask him to go to the group and totally chuck out his current strategy as erroneous.

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Love Cricket? Love me

Look, what we have been doing is changing... but we have been doing it in a way where as BV would phrase "having an each way bet".. going the softly softly approach in case we upset anyone...or because we dont really believe in it so we dont go the full hog cos we might be wrong...

Its just piss weak!!!...

Thats not leadership... its not how you run a tuck shop.. its just not Carlton... well it might be Carlton of the 70s... but then again we still took chances and were innovative back then.... thats what made us great!!.. not holding onto the seventies and the eighties for dear life...

Its pathetic to watch!!!

The jumper... now we have a negative of the old one cos its safe.

We have to change the jumper for an alternative strip why not make it radically different but give it a design so people would buy it??who the hell will buy an anemic white jumper????

They should have created a jumper thats sooo good little johnny would want his navy blue traditional jumper and the brand new in your face modern alternative carlton jumper...

Just pathetic!!!

and they bring it out and unveil it as if they have just reinvented the wheel...

And people cry "leave them alone.. we dont have any money"..

Theyre just soft!!!

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We'd want to stick Lance in the booth before Kouta I'd reckon!!

On the technology thingo, not to rain on anybody's parade, but there are great inherent risks to being an early adopter of new technologies. There are also great costs. Sure there are huge advantages if you get it right, but then again the folks that came up with some of these ideas thought they had the market covered as well:





I guess you could say fortune favours the brave but history is littered with brave new plans that fell a little bit short so we never hear about them. Our strategy was probably valid in the pre-draft period and we have been slow to come around. Great corporations have been slow to turn themselves around but have gone on to be very successful, we will not be any different.

Using the whole Technology Theory vehicle, the success of new technology is sometimes measured on an 'S' curve. At the top of the 'S' the opposition is starting to catch back up to you and this is one of the reasons why it flattens out a little. We are part of the competition that is catching up!

It has been said that inside every problem there is a great opportunity. This is how we should be looking at things right now. There is an opportunity at least for the playing list to almost build from scratch.

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"Who discovered we could get milk from cows, and what did he think he was doing at the time?" Billy Connolly

One thing is clear though... you dont mate by slapping your chosen bitch around and dragging her into your cave anymore either....

Stuff changes.

And sure some innovations are wrong.????

But were a mile behind all the football innovations.. just look around at other clubs...

We wont even make the decisions to catch up...

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

worst company in australia

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Love Cricket? Love me

When did we stop doing that

I'm glad you told me I will have to stop it now

We can still hit them with club now and then cant we

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

No.. the club was a fallacy... they checked the skulls they were intact..
The jaws however were pretty shattered on quite a few of them.. and some had their necks snapped.

But the top of the skull was ok...

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

we never left the 80's I'm afaird, and we are still there!

I'll say it again T, I do not want the coach sacked until the Board has gone - they are the leaders, the planners etc. I will be furious if they scapegoat Pagan and get an extra two years life out of it!

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

I differ from you Dannyboy in that id like to see a line go through the whole lot of them...

I drove by Princes Park the other day and i swear they had the Skyhooks blaring .. 'Living in the 70s'.


Graham "Shirley" Strachan (vocals) God Bless
Red Symons (guitar, vocals)
Bob "Bongo" Starkie (guitar, vocals)
Greg Macanish (bass, vocals)
Imants "Freddie" Strauks (drums, vocals), aka "Freddie Kaboodleschnitzer


I feel a little crazy
I feel a little strange
Like I'm in a pay phone
Without any change
I feel a little edgy
I feel a little weird
I feel like a schoolboy
Who's grown a beard

I'm livin' in the 70's
Eatin' fake food under plastic trees
My face gets dirty just walkin' around
I need another pill to calm me down

I feel a bit nervous
I feel a bit mad
I feel like a good time that's never been had
I feel a bit fragile
I feel a bit low
Like I learned the right lines
But I'm on the wrong show

I'm livin' in the 70's
I feel like I lost my keys
Got the right day but I got the wrong week
And I get paid for just bein' a freak

I feel a little insane
I feel a bit dazed
My legs are shrinkin'
And the roof's been raised
I feel a little mixed up
I feel a little queer
I feel like a barman that can't drink a beer




Classic...

But the kids are into hip hop and trance music now...

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.