Ethnic clusters flourish in cities, and the Triangle is no exception. Head down Western Blvd., right around the Raleigh/Cary border, and you’ll be in Little India.

More than just ‘curry here’ and a ‘sari there,’ Little India is a soup-to-nuts community of Indian businesses, including realtors, jewelers, CPA’s, doctors, dance teachers and D.J.’s (Like DJ Garam Masala, I kid you not.)

They even have their own magazine, Saathee. It’s free and includes jokes like this one: “Mafatlal gave his wife a pair of diamond earrings and a necklace on their wedding anniversary. Wife: “But you promised me a new car! Mafatlatl: “Yes, but I can’t find an imitation car!”

Enjoy some highlights of Little India below. As for musical accompaniment, I recommend the Indian grooves of Desi Radio Online.

Udupi Café
590 East Chatham Street Cary, NC 27511 (919) 465-0898

No meat. No alcohol. No website. And it’s one of my favorite places. (That says a lot.)

Natya Academy
www.natyaacademy.com

Drop in Bollywood dance classes are every Tuesday at 7 pm. See you there!

Roopkala Sarees
http://www.roopkala.com/

 ‘Six yards of fascination,” as the cloth is called, can be wrapped, hung, draped and pleated around the wearer’s body creating a look that is at once mysterious, sexy and dignified.

Added bonus: the store’s website links to an animated online temple to Shirdi Sai Baba, a turn-of-the-century Indian guru, mystic and yogi. He may have been the reincarnation of Shiva. And he did a pretty mean headstand.

Only the best gods have multiple appendages.

Biryani House
744 East Chatham Street Cary, NC 27511-6913 (919) 469-0006

Authentic Indo-Pak cuisine: Chicken, goat and lamb; tandoori, biryani and kabab. It’s been called one of the Triangle’s top 50 restaurants, and it’s prices don’t know it yet.

Galaxy Cinema

Technically, it’s not off Western but it’s still close enough and important enough to be in Little India. This epicenter of Indian culture and entertainment, combines the latest independent films with the best of Bollywood.

Palika Bazaar

740 East Chatham Street Cary, NC 27511-6902

The original Palika Bazaar in New Delhi contains about 400 shops and 15,000 people at any given time. This one is smaller, but no less fun for curious foreigners.

You can find much, much more about the area’s Indian community on these sites:

www.sathee.com
www.humsub.net
www.rtpindia.com
www.apnatriangle.com
www.tcanc.org

The week started out with a musical interpretation of a 19th century German play exploring some dramatic examples of the dangers of repression and potential for revolt when you pit puritanical dogma against natural base desires and a little puberty. Who knew Footloose wasn’t the first?  Frank Wedekind wrote it in 1871 and Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater remade it into a rock opera five years ago.   I got to see the Tony award wining production at the Durham Performing arts Center on Tuesday.

http://www.springawakening.com/

http://www.dpacnc.com/

Friday afternoon I got to participate in a Think Tank here at McKinney for Durham’s bid to host Google Fiber.

How often do you get to spend a portion of your working day brainstorming the limitless possibilities, and somewhat daunting philosophical questions, of a web connection that’s a hundred times faster than the one we currently work with?

http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/

I ended my week in the RTP for TEDx TriangleNC.  This “independently organized TED event” hosted local thinkers, writers, performers who posed questions and big ideas from the simple to the profound for a day of thought, sharing and entertainment on Living to Our Highest Potential.

http://www.tedxtrianglenc.com/

http://www.ted.com/pages/view?id=343   

My point?  Durham kicks ass.

It is weeks like this last one that remind me why I have fallen completely in love with Durham. As I’ve come to embrace it as home my eyes have opened up with a lot of enthusiasm to the great variety of thought provoking opportunities our unique collection of universities, businesses and people has to offer here in Durham.  I can’t wait to see what this next week brings.

Got swept up in the Oscars last night. Found myself a little teary over bits of human drama like Jeff Bridges’ tribute to his parents. Made me think about how movies and yes, sometimes even TV commercials, have the power to move us. Ultimately, as we seek to make the Web a more creative place, that’s the thing that’s still missing. We can interact and we can connect, but where is the emotion? Bodes well for the future of video, wherever and however it runs. And is this the true promise of the iPad? Portable, big-enough screen, entertainment-friendly technology?

Dinner with the folks from The Huffington Post. Got into a fun debate about healthy sleeping with Arianna Huffington and Robert Wrubel, SVP of Apollo Marketing. Huffington Post has grown like crazy, fueled by adding new sections (see the new College section, dialing into what’s happening on campus). Arianna said she’s thinking about adding a sleep section, it’s become such a hot topic. Robert said he makes it up on the weekends with quality naps and a good book. I’ve gone from being proud of getting by on five hours or less to reorganizing my life to get seven every night and wake up the same time every morning. Is anyone else paying attention to the science of sleep?

Every creative brief has this line, or something similar.  It forces us to state why we're doing work in the first place. And I thought about it shortly after the Vancouver Olympics just ended. 

If you ask the International Olympic committee why countries compete in the Olympic Games, they would say, "To build a better world through sport."

If you ask Russian President Dmitri Medvedev why his country competes in the Olympics, he'd give a very different answer: "To win."

As you've probably heard by now, Medvedev was none too pleased at his country's low medal count at the Vancouver Olympics.  He wants heads to roll, and it looks like he just got his wish.  He made it very clear that the primary (and perhaps sole) goal is to win a lot more medals when the games are held on his home turf of Sochi, Russia, in 2014.

Of course every country wants to perform well at the Olympics -- because every athlete wants to perform well.  But are the colors and number of medals the only measure of success? 

Quick - which 2010 Olympic figure skating moment stands out most to you?  If you didn't say the Lysacek - Plushenko battle and controversy (not unexpected considering which country was discounting the other), you likely thought of Canadian Joannie Rochette's remarkable performance just days after her mother died of a heart attack.  Her performance literally had viewers and commentators in tears.  By medal standards, two other skaters "performed" better, including one South Korean skater who got the highest scores of any female Olympic skater in the history of the Olympics!!!

(Side note: as a fellow planner here pointed out to me, the most memorable - in a good way - Olympic moments aren't all gold winners, including the unforgettable story of Derek Redmond and his father.)

So, do you think Rochette pulled that off because she was trying to win?  Or because she was trying to honor her mother (and perhaps her country) by skating her heart out?

And which country do you think "won" more from that competition - Canada or South Korea?

Now back to the title of this entry.  It's easy to answer that question in the brief this way, every time: "Sell more."  And sometimes (DRTV, FSI, etc.) you're trying to do just that - get people to buy, now.

But will the most powerful work always emerge from this goal?  Or will it come when the goal is to engage people, to connect with them emotionally, and get them to think about your brand in a fresh, new way?

I won't be surprised if Russia wins more medals in Sochi in 2014.  But I don't know that means they'll "win."  At least not in the way that Rochette and Canada "won" this time.

Flying across country this week I looked across the aisle and sitting there was one of my heroes, author and consultant Jim Collins, the guy who wrote Good to Great: Why some companies make the leap and others don't.

As we were getting off, I thanked him for the insight I've gained from his work, and told him that I could think of three things he's said that are part of why we are 50% bigger today than we were a year ago, despite the economy.

Even though he was impressed by our performance, I didn't bother him with what the three things are.  But worth sharing here:

The right people on the bus; the people on the bus in the right seats.  We've always taken hiring seriously.  But Jim is great at reminding you that great companies are little more than collections of great people, that even great people don't deliver their best if they aren't in the right roles, and that if you get the right people in the right roles, you can let them fly.  When you have someone who needs a lot of managing, you probably have the wrong person in the wrong seat.

Great companies manage to grow even during bad times.  Lots of companies perform well on a rising tide.  Great companies do as well or better when times are tough.

Good is the enemy of great.  It's worth quoting a whole paragraph of what he has to say on this topic:

Good is the mortal enemy of great.

And if you think about it, it's one of the main reasons why we have so few things that become truly great.

We by and large do not have great schools. Why?  Because we have good schools.

We by and large do not have great government, because we have good government and it works pretty well.

Most companies will never become great because most are really quite good.  And therein lies much of their problem.

And the truth be told in this great society of abundance that is the modern world, that most people will wake up at the end of their lives and need to look back and accept the horrifying truth that they did not have a great life, because it is oh so easy to settle for a good life.

Good is the enemy of great.

I confess, I'm addicted to golf and anything Apple.  I guess as "transgressions" go, that's not so bad!

Well today I met my maker - a glimpse at the kind of content being created specifically for tablets.  While it was a relatively primitive video, a friend from Golf Digest showed me what was presented at this year's PGA show in Orlando - the way Golf Digest will be created for iPad.

Conde Nast has made a few public statements about this for Wired magazine http://www.switched.com/2010/02/17/wired-takes-ipad-to-task-with-impressive-tablet-app/  and there are a few other bad videos online too.

To me, "magazine" content on an iPad is the melding of the aesthetics and storytelling of print with the emotional power of video with the instant-access-to-anything-ness of the web, all in the palm of your hands on what appears to be a very intuitive device.

Imagine being able to "tear" pages of a magazine and save them digitally with a swipe.  Or being able to double-tap content and instantly share it socially via Facebook, Twitter, etc.  Or uploading my golf swing and comparing it to Michael Jordan's while reading an article about him.  Or being able to view products in ads in a 360-degree view and turning them with my finger.  Or having what appears to be a print ad turn into video with a finger swipe.  The possibilities are endless and we're just getting started!

There will be real barriers initially in terms of hardware pricing, service plans, etc.  But I think this will be the end of many magazines while simultaneously being the second coming of the publishing business.

For me, bringing golf and technology together like this is a match made in heaven.  And I cannot wait!

The next time an idea of yours (a campaign, a line, a strategy, etc.) gets killed, think about Stephen Curry. 

Everyone knew the former Davidson Wildcats star had potential when he was drafted by the Golden State Warriors this past year.  But star guard Monta Ellis was getting most of the opportunities to shine thus far this season, and Curry hadn't broken through...yet

As this article in the SF Gate says, When Ellis got hurt, Curry exploded.

In fact, just a few games after filling in for Ellis, Curry did something only a handful of players (including Michael Jordan, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson) had ever done: record at least 35 pts, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a single game.  And now people are starting to wonder if Curry is indeed the next NBA superstar.  (that may be premature, but whatever).

I'm sure most Warriors fans weren't happy to see Ellis go down.  But Curry so far has proved that opportunity lives on.

link to video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsv2bWEje08

Pouring drinks. Serving up insights. McKinney President Jeff Jones and CCO Jonathan Cude are mighty talented at doing both. They proved it on January 12, when they worked the bar at Revolution to raise money for the Urban Ministries of Durham. To get their take on bartending, advertising and that blurry area in-between, I asked them a few questions.

Photo by Julia Parris

Which job did you find more difficult? 
 
JC: Bartending is a lot like advertising. They both demand focus, attention and a superior knowledge of alcohol.
 
JJ: But it was way harder to get the right amount of olive juice in a dirty martini than anything I do here every day!
 
How did your respective roles at McKinney helped you bartend?

JJ: Multitasking, problem solving and meeting deadlines – people were thirsty, now!

JC: If I didn’t know how to make a drink someone ordered, I creatively directed one.

What can advertisers learn from bartenders?

JJ: Listen more! People love to talk about themselves and share all kinds of stories.
 
Do Mad Men and women tip well? (We obviously drink well.)

JC: Yes, especially if it’s for a good cause.

The Red Square Recipe. Give it up. Come on now.

JJ: A slow 3-count pour of vodka, ruby red just right, a splash of sprite, a wedge of lime and lots of smiles.
 
Favorite Cheers quote? Mine’s from Norm of course, “It’s a dog-eat-dog world. And I’m wearing Milkbone underwear.”

JJ: Diane: Hate is not the opposite of love. Indifference is.

JC: Throughout high school Sam Malone was my guiding role model. Someday I’ll find another one.

The Last Call:

The duo raised $531.40 for the Urban Ministries. That means between 6 and 8 pm, over $2,500 in drinks were served to a vibrant crowd of socially conscious tipplers.

I had the honor and pleasure of spending most of yesterday at the North Carolina Central University School of Business. 

Twice a year they host the Management Professionals Forum and I was the 2nd of 6 business leaders sharing why I think i have the best possible profession.

I have to say, I was expecting this to be a "speech" and it turned out to be an incredibly well organized, student-led, forum to prepare the attendees for what is ahead.  Everyone came in business attire.  The entire auditorium stood to welcome me to the stage.  I had lunch with approximately 12 students where we discussed the industry, trends and tips for landing their first jobs. 

Having the chance to spend time in the classroom is one of the most rewarding and fulfiling aspects of life in the Triangle for me.  This opportunity at NCCU was won of the most special experiences I can remember in a long, long time.

Thanks to the University for having me.  And a special thanks to the student organizers who made me feel incredibly welcome all day!