Learning from the WSJ

One of my many failings (don’t get me started!) is an unreasonable antipathy to the Wall Street Journal. Yet, every time I read it, I learn something. I just don’t want to be the type of person who reads the WSJ. Adolescent? No, and now I’m going to go sit in my room, listen to OTown and eat an entire tube of Pringles.

Yesterday, for example, there were two interesting articles on the first page of the B section. Carol Hymowitz writes in the “In the Lead” column about a collaoration between the Orion String Quartet and Bill T. Jones’ dance troupe. The title of it implies that we’re supposed to be able to apply what we read to business: “Artistic Collaboration Offers Tips for Creating a Harmonious Merger.” It’s an interesting article, but the relevancy isn’t obvious. For example, it opens by telling of the quartet’s first meeting with Jones:

…they met a statuesque man wearing a long cape who immediately wanted to show them the dance he had choreographed to the third movement of Beethoven’s String Quarter in F, Op. 135.”

It may have gotten the collaboration off to a great start, but I’d really like to see how this applies to a business partnership:

…they met Jeff Bezos, an ordinary looking man wearing a long cape who immediately wanted to show them the investors’ dance he had choreographed to Amazon’s latest quarterly results.”

On the same page, there’s an article by Maureen Tkacik about Hot Topic, a suburban chain of clothing and accoutrement for teens. Unlike the Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch, Hot Topic doesn’t cater to “popular” teens. It’s clothing for the rest of us. In fact, Hot Topic sends scouts to rock concerts and other teen events to see what kids are wearing rather than trying to coerce kids into wearing what Hot Topic wants them to wear. Bottom up fashion design!

Of course, Hot Topic is stuck in its own teenage Hegelian contradictions. As the article notes, kids love it and hate it, no doubt in part because teenagers are determined not to like what they’re supposed to like. Similarly, “the chain strips dedicated nonconformists of a bit of their originality” by making it available to anyone whose Mom will give them a ride to the mall. Mainstream nonconformism is both an oxymoron and a way of life for a particular age group.

Given my own reaction to the WSJ, apparently I am in Hot Topic’s target demo.

Categories: Uncategorized dw