Subject: Advice from a management expert

From: Bob LeChevalier-Logical Language Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 15:38:11 -0400

The following appeared on the IALLIST@egroups mailing list today, showing 
how to apply strategic thinking to the promotion of Occidental. I am 
curious what the LLG community could/would come up with as vision/mission 
statements of the sort described, and whether this would in turn be a 
useful exercise for Lojban. I will take the best/consensus comments to Dr. 
Voss for his reaction.

My main concern is that in the past I have "sold" Lojban as having a 
variety of purposes, not necessarily completely compatible, with the 
proviso that each Lojbanist should seek in Lojban whatever he wants in a 
language. Hopefully Lojban as a language is powerful enough to serve any 
purpose one would wish for in a language. LLG as an organization has 
explicitly tried NOT to favor some goals at the expense of others.

lojbab

>Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 17:58:40 CDT
> From: "Richard S. Voss" <[email-masked]>
>Subject: Re: Competition among auxlangs
>
>Hi, folks!
>
>Charles wrote...
>
><< Let's distinguish between competition as in "racing", versus competition
>as in "boxing". If auxlangers ran in a 1-mile race, nobody would ever reach
>the finish line. >>
>
>Competition is a lemonade stand. Decide for yourself for whom to make your
>lemonade perfect, then make it perfect only for them. Eventually, they'll
>come all the way from south Austin just to watch you make it, as long as you
>let them know it's there.
>
><< So the winning strategy is about 1000 times more cooperation and
>compromise among auxlangers than there has been previously. >>
>
>No amount of cooperation among the lemonade-makers will convince the people
>from south Austin to bypass all the other lemonade stands to visit yours. To
>attract *most* of the people, you will indeed need 1000 times more
>cooperation, but you simply do not have the resources that 1000 times more
>cooperation requires. Instead, take a good look at your lemonade and the
>people who drink it. Ask them, "Who are you really?" Some of them are
>wandering by anyway--thank them and then keep looking. Others have come from
>farther away specifically for *your* lemonade. *Those* are your people. Make
>your lemonade for them alone, and tell other people *just like them* about
>your fantastic product. Soon you'll find them coming from miles around, even
>south Austin.
>
>Now, let's see if I can figure out who your target audience is. Just what
>kind of lemonade are you making, anyway?
>
><< Occidental is the easiest language to learn, and can be used to
>communicate even with people who have never studied it. Restriction: this
>requires knowing a European language. >>
>
>Draft of vision statement: "Occidental seeks to become the preeminent
>vehicle for international communication."
>
>Mind you, this is rough, but I think you get the picture. If indeed
>Occidental seeks one day to be the auxiliary language of choice, then this
>is precisely what your vision is. This is true regardless of how you choose
>to be perceived--it may be anathema to Occidentalists to talk in such terms
>in everyday life. You may, in fact, believe that the way to achieve that
>vision is precisely to let the enjoyment of the language itself do that work
>for you. I'll assume this to be the case for now. Nevertheless, what you
>specify in your mission statement is an eventual means to that end.
>
>The following are some initial assumptions I have about Occidental, with
>which I am really not familiar. Some of this is based on what you have
>already said about it.
>
>Occidental's strengths: Ease of acquisition; familiarity to those who are
>familiar with a European language; ease of use; minimal ambiguity;
>aesthetically pleasing resonance; technologically flexible structure;
>fun-loving community (this last one is not a joke--if this is really the
>case, then it can be an advantage).
>
>Occidental's weaknesses: Small community of users; necessity for some
>knowledge of a European language for easy acquisition; not well known in the
>world; small physical infrastructure; limited finances.
>
>Occidental's opportunities: Large numbers of people that have yet to be
>apprised of an auxlang to facilitate international communication; large
>numbers of people that currently speak a European language either as a first
>or as a second language; the possibility that an auxlang could help in
>machine translation; the rapid spread of the Internet as a way to offset
>some of the advantage of more firmly established auxlangs; large numbers of
>people that have little incentive to learn any but the easiest possible
>auxlang; large numbers of people that might want a convenient recreational
>language.
>
>Occidental's threats: Dominance of Esperanto; possible role of Lojban in
>machine translation; relative strength of other alternatives.
>
>Perhaps you determine that emphasizing the language's "fun" side is the most
>reliable way to achieve rapid early growth. This would determine at least
>the central portion of your target audience.
>
>Draft of mission statement: "Occidental will serve as a fun tool of
>international communication among people who are already familiar with a
>European language and would like to converse with foreign people with
>minimal effort. Occidental will accomplish this by taking advantage of its
>unmatched facility of acquisition and remarkably pleasant style."
>
>Now, it is obvious that the mission statement cannot include everything that
>*might* be a part of the language's grand strategy. Nevertheless, it can
>serve to guide the activities of one specific Occidental club in the
>propagation of the language. This club would focus on one target market and
>gauge all of its success in those terms alone. Another club could devote its
>attention to the question of technological flexibility and focus on those
>people to whom this need is most critical. The rest is obvious, I think, but
>each organization that is subsequently set up requires very careful thought
>and the utmost seriousness in intent.
>
>It may be that your resources currently limit you to promoting only the most
>central objective (fun) for now. If so, then you will rely on the growing
>support base that results from this effort eventually to set up the next
>organization, which will be dedicated to the next mission that you deem
>important to the eventual approximation of the vision.
>
>Every amateur strategist knows SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses,
>opportunities, threats). This, in addition to careful crafting of the vision
>and mission statements, is only the beginning. The next step is to identify
>those human abilities that figure among your strengths, at which your people
>are particularly adept.
>
>Since the language already exists, most of what is listed above is an
>inherent advantage that simply requires effective promotion. You will, of
>course, devote most of your promotional resources to those aspects of the
>language that clearly make it stand head and shoulders above the
>alternatives. All that remains (at least in my little list) is the term
>"fun-loving community." This is a "core competence" as long as you can
>confidently say, "Yes, we do that pretty darn well (better than the other
>things we do)." It deserves constant nurturing and reinforcing. It should
>pervade everything that you do to promote the language. Do Occidental
>websites have a dead-serious layout? Do representatives of the Occidental
>community seem to take themselves too seriously? Do the Occidentalists with
>whom state and private agencies come into contact seem wooden and formal in
>their manner? Of course, the answer should be the same for all of these...a
>resounding No! In fact, it should be a very jovial, fun-loving No! Think
>about your other core competencies (there should only be a few) and take
>full advantage of them with good consistency in promotion.
>
>Lastly, regarding the vision statement, all those who actively work to make
>Occidental a success must buy into it. It must be personified by
>Occidentalists. I believe Esperantists do this quite well. They may not
>always run around saying, "We're better than you," but they do behave as if
>Esperanto *is* the international language. All those fun-loving
>Occidentalists meeting at the beach and in cafés should have a look on their
>faces that says, "Of course we speak Occidental--what else would we be
>speaking?"
>
><< Esperanto is the ideal -- combine the difficulty of Latin and Greek plus
>Polish... >>
>
>Vi rekonfidigis min studi la polan lingvon, kiun mi neniom pensis este tiel
>facila! :)
>
>Amike,
>
>Richard S. Voss
>Professor of Management

--
lojbab [email-masked]
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org