Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 944

This is not new. It has been reported on before. But I just finished reading this article about Jeff Bezos’ relentless commitment to “high-quality and high-velocity decision making” at Amazon.

Here are a couple of high level points:

- There are decisions that cannot be easily reversed (Type 1) and there are decisions that can be (Type 2). Knowing which is which is important. To help get better at this, they are very diligent about tracking the outcomes of previous decisions.

- Make decisions without all of the info you wish you had, because if you don’t, you’re probably moving too slow. Speed is paramount. If you’ve categorized your decisions properly (see above), being wrong may not actually be that costly.

- There’s a company philosophy centered around “disagree and commit.” It is about moving forward – since speed is so important – without full consensus. In other words: We may not all agree, but can we disagree and commit to this?

Perhaps the most interesting, and seemingly paradoxical, aspect of Amazon’s “high-velocity decision making process” is that it is built upon narrative memos, instead of PowerPoint decks. In fact, decks have been banned at the company since 2004 .

The reason for this is that narrative memos are more difficult to write, which means you really have to understand what you’re talking about. It encourages deeper thought and it allows nuances and interdependencies to come through.

Apparently important meetings start with everyone just sitting in a room reading the narrative memo, which are often between 4-6 pages. Once everyone has read the memo and is on the same page, the meeting starts.

As someone who writes a daily narrative, this approach really resonates me. It would be a hell of a lot easier if I could just show up here every day and throw down a few bullet points. But then both of us would get far less out of this practice.

Writing takes time. Bezos has acknowledged that these memos cannot be written in a day or two. But clearly there’s a belief that more time spent up front translates into greater overall speed. Their market cap suggests that is working.

At the beginning of this month, Interbrand released its annual ranking of the world’s best global brands . This year’s 2018 report marks the 19th year of the study. If you’d like to download a free copy of the report, you can do that here . But below is a snapshot of the first 24 brands:

Apple and Google are in top position for the 6th year in a row. And Amazon is on a hockey stick trajectory with its brand value jumping by 56%. More than half of the list is comprised of the following five sectors: Automotive (16), Technology (13), Financial Services (12), Luxury (9), and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (9). Luxury is currently the fastest growing sector.

In their report, they outline five themes that have emerged and that are helping these brands outperform. They are:

1. Positive utility - not enough to just make people feel good through storytelling; you need to create real value and a positive impact in the world
   

2. Subscription mindset - there’s an increasing amount of brand value in subscription-based businesses (29% in 2018 compared to 18% in 2009); you need to offer your products and services with the least amount of friction as possible
   

3. Customer-centricity - bring the voice of your customer into every aspect of your business; be nimble enough to respond quickly
   

4. Learning from luxury - the top performing category in this year’s ranking; about exclusivity and authenticity
   

5. Role of brand - make your brand part of the decision-making process; build brand equity and trust
   

I’ll stop there and let you all dig into the rest of the report if you’re interested. 

But one thing I found particularly interesting about the study is that they used – insert buzzwords here – “AI-powered social listening” to try and measure the emotion and sentiment floating around on the internet around specific brands. The goal was to pin down the perceived trustworthiness of specific brands.

Not surprisingly, they found a pretty strong correlation between customer trust and purchasing intent . Makes sense to me.

The Miami Herald has a recent article up asking:  Has Miami Beach lost its mojo? While the beach will always be an immense draw, there’s concern that entertainment dollars could now be starting to favor mainland neighborhoods like Wynwood, Brickell, and the Design District. 

Here are some of the reasons why it is believed that may be happening:

- Structural changes to the retail landscape

- High rents have pushed out all of the interesting and distinctive tenants

- City is too lenient when it comes to the nighttime economy; South Beach has become a circus

- Investors and developers are worried about the Beach’s exposure to sea level rise

- Strips like Ocean Drive and Lincoln Road have simply completed their urban cycle and are no longer attractive and novel

- Overdevelopment of luxury housing (curiously, there’s a preservationist quoted in the article who appears to believe that restricting development to only mid-rise will result in less luxury housing)

Many of these points are certainly not unique to Miami Beach. We know the retail landscape is changing . But as I was reading through the article, I was once again reminded that cities are always changing – even when we try and stop them from doing that.

There are over 900 historic buildings in the Miami Art Deco District . Most are low-rise and mid-rise. This includes the iconic Ocean Drive. And yet the above article is all about the changes that the Beach has seen and experienced over the years.

Oftentimes we only associate change with new buildings. But architectural preservation does not guarantee any sort of urban stasis. Cities are far more complex than that.

Image: Photo by Ryan Spencer on Unsplash