Today, instead of covering one post in depth or giving you a digest of what everyone wrote about this week by topic, we're just going to share some of our favorite bits of wisdom from the last few days. No editorials or summaries. Just the beef. Enjoy.

"If you treat people like adversaries, they’ll act like adversaries. And, if you act like employees are just out to steal from you, they’ll very likely – um – steal from you. At the very least, they’re not going to come to work with a song in their heart and a spring in their step, ready to go that extra mile for you and your customers." - Mary Schmidt.

"Brands should put their customer service at the center of their brand universe. Customer service is where people give you real feedback about their brand "experiences," and most often when things start going negative, as was the case when Jeff Jarvis started documenting his negative experiences with Dell on his blog - it starts off in the customer service department. In fact, Pete said, "the value of the customer service department may be 10 times as valuable as bean counters account for..." - Francois Gossieaux (paraphrasing Pete Blackshaw of Nielsen Buzzmetrics)

"I have a personal theory about surfing. It takes riding a thousand waves to become a surfer. It doesn’t matter if you catch 20 waves a day for 50 days or one wave a day for a thousand days; you just can’t get around the experience of learning the hard way.

"Just as in surfing, there is no substitution for one thousand waves, or in this case, a thousand personal interactions with your customer. I know it seems like an overwhelming number, but there is just no way around it. Mastering the seven steps above takes lots of practice. And practice will give you the chance to develop your own style of engaging in a bottom-up strategy with your customers and the marketplace, giving you the opportunity to drive real innovation." - John Winsor.

"When you’re getting hit from all sides with daily work and firefighting, it’s difficult to fit in much else. So, in market scanning, it’s easy to get into the habit of reading the same industry pubs, talking to the same analysts, tracking the same competitors, etc. All the usual suspects. However, to really be prepared (and spot new opportunities) it’s necessary, to ask questions such as, “What changes could make our product obsolete?” We also have to look at things outside our own industry. What’s going on in our society? Legislation (existing & pending)? The economy? Demographics? Weather patterns? (Got a critical supplier in a hurricane zone? ruh-roh.)" - Mary Schmidt.

"With the partial exception of truly image-driven categories (such as fashion, perfume or liquor), which offer no tangible benefit to speak of, companies become and remain leaders by offering consumers a tangible reason to choose them over the competition. Soon after they fail to deliver, they fall from grace." - Mark Babej and Tim Pollak.

"Authority is rather different from popularity. For some subjects, you might find BoingBoing has the most linked posts, but that doesn't mean their voice is the most influential." - Johnnie Moore.

"Marketing is all about today, not yesterday. Experience is valuable, but the ability to read and react and think on one’s feet is a far more precious commodity. In a marketing environment where performance data is available instantaneously and myriad variables come into play that were unimagined years or even months ago, street smarts trump book smarts. A marketer schooled in the marketplace…or trained to think broadly…enjoys the upper hand. When everyone has the same wisdom, it soon becomes conventional wisdom. And conventional wisdom, in a fluid and dynamic market, is the kiss of death." - Tim Pollak .

And finally, this gem:

"The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow."

- William Pollard.

Pow.

Have a great weekend, everyone. :)

Busy busy busy week for everyone at Corante. Hopefully, the lighter-than-normal editorial traffic hasn't slowed you down. If it has, we'll be back to daily editorials on the Marketing hub next week.

Here's a quick recap of some of the best posts (by topic) so far this week:

Innovation: John Winsor's "Day To Day Innovation", which points us to Diego Rodriguez' "Organizing for routine innovation" article. (Seth Godin serindipidously posted a piece very much in tune with this very topic this week as well. Check it out here.) John takes the conversation a few steps further in his "Maximize Your Innovation Resources" post, which is well worth the read.

Evelyn Rodriguez also shares some great insight into Innovation in her "The Marriage of Receptivity and Presence" post.

Mary Schmidt also exposes some of Innovation's tragic realities in "Innovation Behind The Curtain". (What do I mean by that? Well, in Mary's words:

"Everybody says they want it, yet few people actually value or do it (at least if you believe what you read in surveys and articles.) But why is it so hard?"

Great, quick little read.

Customer Service: Mary Schmidt takes her turn at the "why is this customer service thing so hard" helm this week with her aptly titled "Service Stupidity" post. (I just love that title.)

Here's some of her advice:

"If you’re a vendor, here’s what you do: Quit paying consultants like me to tell you no-brainer things like, “don’t hide from your customers” and “answer the damned phone.” Walk your talk about your commitment to customers (and your employees). Trust me, the ROI in customer profitability and loyalty will far exceed your initial costs. I used to package, market and manage call center services and I know all the reasons, excuses, financials, and CEO speak. Stop whining. Just do it."

Tell it, Mary. :)

Marketing & Business Wisdom: Chris Carfi gives us this to ponder this week:

"Good social networks provide ways for people to create just the sort of information to create useful affinities or ways to find the people you're interested in networking with. This is something I call the social surface area (graphic) but I think the potential for this in the enterprise are clearly still there, once initial concerns are overcome. Thus, the social media companies that find good ways to increase a user's social surface area without disrupting the business itself will tend to be most successful." -- Dion Hinchcliffe (ZDNet), from his post Social Networking Makes A Play For The Enterprise

Blogging Friction: Shel Holtz and Amanda Chapel are having a little disagreement over transparency that illustrates some of the issues that blogging - as a fairly new medium still - is still faced with. Shel's response is an abbreviated manifesto of sorts that sheds a whole lot of light on transparency, credibility, A-listers and the long tail. Revealing and very honest (dare I say transparent?) post.

Inspiration: (Where innovation and strategic planning often come from.) Yep, John Winsor again. His "Six Steps To Finding Inspiration" post is fantastic. Save it, print it, staple a copy to your scrapbook, post it to your wall... It doesn't matter. Read it. It's well worth the five minutes.

That should about do it for today. Check out the other network posts to see if there's anything else you might be interested in. (And let me know so I can add your favorite themes and topics next time.)

Have a great Friday, everyone. :)