Walter Cronkite died yesterday. 

I literally grew up with him. He took the anchor position in 1962 when I was three and retired the same year I graduated from college. I was the oldest of five children and we were expected to know what was going on in the world. We were quizzed at the dinner table about cabinet positions, world leaders and current events. Most of my information came from Walter Cronkite. 

 

Seth Godin says "Quit or be exceptional" so I am on a hunt for examples in the B2B world of remarkable offerings. Here's one from today:

Just had a remarkable B2B experience. We use Diamond Springs for our water and coffee service. We had a service call on the coffee maker yesterday. This morning,  bright and early, the Diamond Spring guy shows up with a brand new water cooler. He noticed yesterday that we had one of the older models so he switched it out for one of the newer models. Now we can select really cold water, which draws from the bottom of the jug closer to the refrigeration or more room temperature which pulls the water from the top of the jug.  When was the a providers service was remarkable?

 

I’ve been getting carried away with the length of the blog entries lately so I’ll keep this one short in honor of the holiday.

I was doing some research for a client recently, which had me checking out Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. They have a great value proposition:  

• Noted for an intellectual student body
• Able to draw speakers such as Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher
• They encourage their students to participate in as many things as possible so they can experience everything the university and the world has to offer. 
• You can even combine your diverse interests into a unique major.

And in quite the Kate fashion they had this really cool tradition where freshman arrive on campus by walking through “ The Columns”.  Tradition prevents you (just like Benedictine’s senior stairs) from walking through the columns again until graduation. Isn’t that the perfect mixture of old and new?  I started daydreaming about what it would be like to go back to school.