Revitalizing Your Channels, Functionalities, and Vision
Brian Siegel
INFO
Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.
Vision, risk-taking and change
customers/business gambling on each other
Automated systems, enhanced intranets, information and inventory tracking, electronic tools, and online systems to improve our daily lives as well as business are always changing. Connecting with customers, internal and external, and the transition of information is more efficient. Information and systems on it’s own cannot revolutionize our culture, world, and business. Like any good recipe, it entails other spices and ingredients. Without people, building relationships, and enduring change we can’t revolutionize any single IT channel. Chips get smaller, hardware gets better, software develops, security increases, people demand more, IT supplies and creates demands for updated and enhanced products and services. “Companies will be technology architects rather than systems builders” (Rattling SABRE article). Companies will have to be creative, predict trends, meet unmet needs, and like any product/service tailor it towards the users/consumers.
Like the Delta site that enables updates to cell phones, American Airlines computerized reservation systems, increasing capacity, enhancing options, and offering easier use and higher functioning systems. Will IT and the Internet, like ice cream, too much of something good can be detrimental? Hanover (manufacturer) developed a way for investors on Wall Street to help them navigate through difficult situations and currency trading. Powerful and useful tools like this allow for super growth. If it interacts with other interfaces like SABRE does with travel agencies, airlines, users, secondary services like hotels + car rentals, and sites (like Travelocity, expedia, cheaptickes, and many others) even more partnerships, information, and growth can occur. To produce growth and efficiency, systems and CIO leaders need to connect outside sources, internal information, and small business units to a universally sound system that interacts with fluidity. Like a signal transmitting along a neurotransmitter in the body, it goes along many channels, from the nucleus or “brain” and travels along many paths, but communicates with universal awareness and connectivity to other systems. If you identify your needs, create a system or change the way things are done, and link that with an information system such as two way radios, how Napster revolutionized access to music, and email to cell phones, then the seeds are planted to reap benefits. As long as it’s logical, links, connects, and relates, then good things can happen. Taking a cluster and array of info, simplifying it, getting to the “meat”, relating it to the pertinent areas it needs linked to, can allow for smooth sailing.
I wish I had invested in Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. in 1999 (isn’t that the case with a lot of things!) due to their success and stock doubling, and showing that you have to spend money/invest in good ideas to grow! Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who like many IT gurus had a different idea and prospective for connecting different ideas, ventured into the desert to create and build his idea of a hotel and casino, Flamingo, to attract gamblers, or in the IT world, “users”. These entertainment hubs and idea spread to Atlanta, New Jersey, reservations, and many other areas to meet the need and desire of a fun time. Areas boomed due to the entertainment, resorts, and associated businesses (Vegas in particular, guess “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” doesn’t apply to modeling ideas after them, or getting caught by the media there, ha). The focus of this HBR article, William Fish Harrah/Harrah’s Entertainment, started his business via Bingo/gambling when he was 26. I am 27, so I am a year behind my empire already! He then expanded into the hotel, restaurant, and gaming industry in multiple cities. Like most businesses, it flourishes with the more traffic one has. Satre, a VP of the company (1984), realized people drove business, so he interacted with customers, found out where else they go to gamble, and set up point/tracking cards (loyalty cards). Developing this “people” business and building loyalty, and options for entertainment relates to success. To create better business, tracking and tailoring their marketing was focused. Gambling, like some sites and items on the Internet, consists of excitement, chance, and anticipation of something. When that psychological aspect isn’t met, then people have “shitty” times. If the services provided are tailored towards the winners and losers, reward programs invited all parties, and attention is given to customers during good and bad times, loyalty is built. The people approach was the way Harrah’s wanted to go. The structure, services, and business model was aligned with this “people approach”. Measurement systems were put into place to gauge a customer’s loyalty, and then build loyalty through rewards and loyalty programs. These tracking/measurement systems monitored their gaming style and preferences. The system they set up for tracking then allowed Harrah’s to relate to them, set up a profile in their database, and build their “friendship”. The incremental businesses of food, hotel, and other amenities provided a great relationship between growth, people approach, and measurement systems. Total Rewards (Harrah’s), Kroger Plus Card, Blockbuster Rewards Card, GNC Gold Card, Sam’s Club, Delta Frequent Flyer Miles, and many others follow this same pattern and measurement system. It connects buyers to sellers, provides incentives for both, and markets businesses in a way that is closer to the clients businesses attempt to build residual business with (and share of wallet).
With these focused promotions, coupons, flyers, and incentives to go to the casino, use a coupon at Kroger, Value Paks, frequent flyer miles, and many other promotions, are the consumers “tricked” into business? “If I spend 200 more dollars on this slot, I get a free night in their hotel and a dinner”, not realizing that “nothing is free”, and the dinner/hotel cost 50 dollars, so the casino just make 150 straight profit on you! “If I fly 1000 more miles, I can cash in on this Delta ticket for free, but only at these selected dates/times”, so it is actually “free” for Delta, and not for you anyhow! I think the measurement systems are great, but all too often I end up filling my recycling bin with all the fluff material I have no idea how marketing and IT systems found me, and rarely a useful, intelligent, and cost effective device or coupon to utilize as a benefit for my family or myself! It’s the old distraction game, “look at me”, while they slip their hand in your pocket with your money in it. Clever marketing, my how it works, and the gambling business, they’re already dealing with people and behavioral psychology / gambling attachments of the want to win on their side, why not rope them in with coupons and other attractions!
INFO
Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.
Vision, risk-taking and change
customers/business gambling on each other
Automated systems, enhanced intranets, information and inventory tracking, electronic tools, and online systems to improve our daily lives as well as business are always changing. Connecting with customers, internal and external, and the transition of information is more efficient. Information and systems on it’s own cannot revolutionize our culture, world, and business. Like any good recipe, it entails other spices and ingredients. Without people, building relationships, and enduring change we can’t revolutionize any single IT channel. Chips get smaller, hardware gets better, software develops, security increases, people demand more, IT supplies and creates demands for updated and enhanced products and services. “Companies will be technology architects rather than systems builders” (Rattling SABRE article). Companies will have to be creative, predict trends, meet unmet needs, and like any product/service tailor it towards the users/consumers.
Like the Delta site that enables updates to cell phones, American Airlines computerized reservation systems, increasing capacity, enhancing options, and offering easier use and higher functioning systems. Will IT and the Internet, like ice cream, too much of something good can be detrimental? Hanover (manufacturer) developed a way for investors on Wall Street to help them navigate through difficult situations and currency trading. Powerful and useful tools like this allow for super growth. If it interacts with other interfaces like SABRE does with travel agencies, airlines, users, secondary services like hotels + car rentals, and sites (like Travelocity, expedia, cheaptickes, and many others) even more partnerships, information, and growth can occur. To produce growth and efficiency, systems and CIO leaders need to connect outside sources, internal information, and small business units to a universally sound system that interacts with fluidity. Like a signal transmitting along a neurotransmitter in the body, it goes along many channels, from the nucleus or “brain” and travels along many paths, but communicates with universal awareness and connectivity to other systems. If you identify your needs, create a system or change the way things are done, and link that with an information system such as two way radios, how Napster revolutionized access to music, and email to cell phones, then the seeds are planted to reap benefits. As long as it’s logical, links, connects, and relates, then good things can happen. Taking a cluster and array of info, simplifying it, getting to the “meat”, relating it to the pertinent areas it needs linked to, can allow for smooth sailing.
I wish I had invested in Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. in 1999 (isn’t that the case with a lot of things!) due to their success and stock doubling, and showing that you have to spend money/invest in good ideas to grow! Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who like many IT gurus had a different idea and prospective for connecting different ideas, ventured into the desert to create and build his idea of a hotel and casino, Flamingo, to attract gamblers, or in the IT world, “users”. These entertainment hubs and idea spread to Atlanta, New Jersey, reservations, and many other areas to meet the need and desire of a fun time. Areas boomed due to the entertainment, resorts, and associated businesses (Vegas in particular, guess “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” doesn’t apply to modeling ideas after them, or getting caught by the media there, ha). The focus of this HBR article, William Fish Harrah/Harrah’s Entertainment, started his business via Bingo/gambling when he was 26. I am 27, so I am a year behind my empire already! He then expanded into the hotel, restaurant, and gaming industry in multiple cities. Like most businesses, it flourishes with the more traffic one has. Satre, a VP of the company (1984), realized people drove business, so he interacted with customers, found out where else they go to gamble, and set up point/tracking cards (loyalty cards). Developing this “people” business and building loyalty, and options for entertainment relates to success. To create better business, tracking and tailoring their marketing was focused. Gambling, like some sites and items on the Internet, consists of excitement, chance, and anticipation of something. When that psychological aspect isn’t met, then people have “shitty” times. If the services provided are tailored towards the winners and losers, reward programs invited all parties, and attention is given to customers during good and bad times, loyalty is built. The people approach was the way Harrah’s wanted to go. The structure, services, and business model was aligned with this “people approach”. Measurement systems were put into place to gauge a customer’s loyalty, and then build loyalty through rewards and loyalty programs. These tracking/measurement systems monitored their gaming style and preferences. The system they set up for tracking then allowed Harrah’s to relate to them, set up a profile in their database, and build their “friendship”. The incremental businesses of food, hotel, and other amenities provided a great relationship between growth, people approach, and measurement systems. Total Rewards (Harrah’s), Kroger Plus Card, Blockbuster Rewards Card, GNC Gold Card, Sam’s Club, Delta Frequent Flyer Miles, and many others follow this same pattern and measurement system. It connects buyers to sellers, provides incentives for both, and markets businesses in a way that is closer to the clients businesses attempt to build residual business with (and share of wallet).
With these focused promotions, coupons, flyers, and incentives to go to the casino, use a coupon at Kroger, Value Paks, frequent flyer miles, and many other promotions, are the consumers “tricked” into business? “If I spend 200 more dollars on this slot, I get a free night in their hotel and a dinner”, not realizing that “nothing is free”, and the dinner/hotel cost 50 dollars, so the casino just make 150 straight profit on you! “If I fly 1000 more miles, I can cash in on this Delta ticket for free, but only at these selected dates/times”, so it is actually “free” for Delta, and not for you anyhow! I think the measurement systems are great, but all too often I end up filling my recycling bin with all the fluff material I have no idea how marketing and IT systems found me, and rarely a useful, intelligent, and cost effective device or coupon to utilize as a benefit for my family or myself! It’s the old distraction game, “look at me”, while they slip their hand in your pocket with your money in it. Clever marketing, my how it works, and the gambling business, they’re already dealing with people and behavioral psychology / gambling attachments of the want to win on their side, why not rope them in with coupons and other attractions!
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