David L. Peterson

International Speaker, Bestselling Author, Serial Entrepreneur, Shipwreck Survivor

Innovation ThinkTime

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A Restaurant Booth Whose Time Has Passed

I was driving through rural Nebraska recently with my wife Samantha on our way back to Oklahoma City. We were looking for a place to have dinner and saw a sign for an Indian restaurant at the next exit. Indian food perfectly met our dietary and hunger needs, so we exited and looked for the restaurant. With trepidation, we entered the restaurant, or, I should say, we entered the convenience store the restaurant shared space with. We were in the indecisive mode of “should we try this or bolt,” but decided to stay since the rest of our choices would be minimal for many miles. So we ordered food at the counter and went to sit down in one of the numbered booths (seriously, each booth had a number prominently displayed). We both immediately saw this after sitting down: There was one of …

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Does Customer Experience Really Matter

I was in the Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City on a beautiful summer Sunday. The mall was reasonably busy, probably just right for a Sunday afternoon during a non-holiday shopping season. I was headed to the Apple Store, but on the way there, I passed by the Microsoft Store. Microsoft has attempted to duplicate the Apple Store in look and feel; plus, they have a natural draw to bring in younger shoppers, one that Apple does not have: the Xbox. There was a huge monitor and multiple player stations with Xbox game audio blasting into the mall—a virtual pied piper strategically placed to lure in Millennials. Except, it wasn’t working. Excluding the six Microsoft store employees, there were two other people in the Microsoft Store. Two. It could not have looked more like the “dead party” I …

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Remediating a Problem or Crisis, it’s Really Simple

Every July, I get the honor to teach at the Graduate School of Banking held at the University of Colorado in Boulder. If you are in financial services and want to position yourself as a future CSuite executive, this is the school you should attend. Check it out here. During my technology class in a discussion about an FI’s social media and online presence, I made the statement that when I am researching a company, it does not bother me to see a negative review. In fact, if I don’t see some less than stellar reviews, I consider that maybe the information is bogus. There will always be somebody that gets sideways for some reason. It happens. What I want to see is that the company respond to the comment. It shocks me to see how many companies don’t pay attention online. Somebody goes and …

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Making Difficult Choices

In preparation for a 2020 sailing trip around the island of Antigua, my wife Samantha and I inspected some sailing vessels that were available for us to rent. These were 44-foot catamarans and were truly tricked out for luxury. While there are advantages to hiring a captain, we like the fact that I have certification as a captain of mono- and multihull sailboats so we can go where we want, when we want. And trust me, there is nothing like anchoring in a secluded cove, going for a swim or snorkel, and then having snacks and adult beverages on the stern while you watch the sunset. It is spectacular! So we were looking at several sailboats, and they were all fully loaded. One in particular had a full-sized refrigerator in the galley. Now, if you have ever been on a sailboat, you know that …

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The Consequences of Not Planning Ahead

My wife Samantha and I love the sea. We try to boat, sail, or generally get into the salt water as much as we can. We recently had an opportunity to spend a week on the island of Antigua (we were scouting for a 2020 sailing trip) and we did a lot of snorkeling. We were staying at a condo booked via AirBnB, and there was a lovely beach right below our villa. We had snorkeled there several times and it was just lovely. There was also a path (a relatively short walk) that took us over to another bay about a hundred yards away. So one morning, we decided to take our snorkeling gear to the other bay and snorkel around the peninsula to our beach. We checked to make sure we would not be facing any inclement weather, and all was good, so off we set. We entered the water in the other bay and …

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