1) He admits to be a bozo himself, because he turned down the offer to be the first CEO of Yahoo ("It's too far to drive and I don't see how it can be a business") what made him miss the opportunity to earn two billion dollars.
2) He used the term to describe unsuccessfull scepticists who don't get innovation, who tell innovators that things can't be done and will go wrong.
3) In his magic quadrant of uniquess and value, you are a cash cow if you are valuable, but not unique, you are a superstar, if you are unique and valuable, you should go home and die, if you are not unique and valuable, and if you are unique, but not valuable - you're a bozo.
Sounds cool.
But are we ready to accept that? Somehow I'm not.
My first observation was that the description of Kawasaki's Bozo type 2 ("old clothes, hair coming out of their ears, they smell, they judge you without being asked,...) meets 95% of austrian university teaching stuff. And on the other hand, I feel that there is some relation between value and uniqueness. It is a certain value, if something is unique. That's not wishful thinking only - we pay huge amounts of money for antiques, art and individual items, mainly for the reason of uniqueness.
The audience is limited, that's a horrible idea to a marketer. But I think that this is a valid direction for businesses. It depends on what your idea of success is: Walking around in cities like Amsterdam, Prague or Zurich really makes me wonder how all those shops with freaky products and weird opening hours work make a living and how the people whose products are sold there make a living - but it works. Probably nobody gets rich. But probably they don't have to mourn for two billion dollars. - Sometimes that makes me want to be a bozo, too,.
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