Mona Lisa and the Soul of Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa 1503-1506

Mona Lisa (1503-1506) by Leonardo da Vinci is one of the world’s most famous paintings that have drawn interest for many years from different cultures around the world.  The poise of the painting has created a fascination with people from all lifestyles.  Mona Lisa is seen as perfectly posing in a background of illusion. Together the painting offers a glimpse of a woman who is content in life with a touch of interest in her viewer. The work is seen as a masterpiece of illusion and light. Yet, there might be something more shocking about the Mona Lisa we are not consciously aware of. 

The conventional interpretation of painting is believed by some art scholars to be of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Lisa was from the Gherardini family of Florence and her picture commissioned during the Renaissance. In her early life she married a silk merchant who eventually became a local official. They had five children together before he passed away. It is believed that they had ties to the Medici family even though they had lost much of their prestige over time. No one knows for sure who she actually was.

The painting is interesting in that Leonardo used a pyramid design to place the main figure in center. Above her folded hands one can see a glow of light that helps to create a spherical illusion around the center of her body. The background is an aerial perspective that adjusts the picture image and colors slightly as one move closer and further away. It creates an additional illusion of depth based upon the sensitivity of the eye. Those who are more sensitive can see a slightly different picture based upon the depth of their focus. 

This depth of focus was further highlighted when Cotte, the founder of Lumiere Technology, developed a 13 ultraviolet spectrum camera. The forearm and write were actually holding a drape. There were a couple of mistakes in the painting such as a blotch on the corner of the eye and chin that was actually varnish mistakes and not sickness as commonly thought. In addition, the elbow had to be repaired from a rock thrown at the picture in 1956.

According to Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage who magnified Mona Lisa’s eyes, you can find letter LD in the right eye (Leonardo da Vinci) and CE or B- (unknown marking) in the left eye. It is believed that the letters represent the author and the model. Leonardo believed in the eyes as the “doors of the soul” and a special means of communication. It would be natural for such a person to use the eyes as a way of encoding information about the author and its subject.

Others have argued that if you match up Leonardo’s portrait from the left half of his face with the right side of Mona Lisa’s face you will find a match. Of course, you have to flip it in the mirror. A potential reason why Mona Lisa was so oddly charming was that it was Leonardo himself at a younger age. If so, it would be a statement of perception about how what we see is not always everything there is to know. Leonardo was considered a handsome youth with wide appeal and if we change our draping and few other trivial things we actually are viewed as something else. No matter how one views another they fail to miss the deeper complexity of human life.

The portrait of the female version of da Vinci as a Renaissance “looking glass self” would make sense. We define ourselves by our social interaction with others. Leonardo sayings of “doors of the soul”, using mirrors in codes, and being left handed may lend to the concept that we are reflections of what we see in the world. His very creativity being drawn from the differences of how he used his brain and the giftedness by which he felt the world. One must wonder if that great smirk is of him looking upon himself as something different than anyone else can see it—a higher form of conscious awareness.

Is there a reason why scholars call it an “androgynous” look? Androgynous defined as combined of male and female. Was he the thinking and feeling man?  Perhaps the da Vinci’s code is to be able to trace all of his works and stories back to the man who no one truly knew. Can you unlock da Vinci’s code by opening the door? To date...no one has.

Creating Customer Loyalty through Technology Implementation

We are now in the service economy and should learn better on how to integrate technology within the e-commerce world. Considering the explosion in online marketing and service management it is possible to understand the growth in online service research. Understanding how customers view the value of such services is important for overall improvement.

Service quality is important for customers who desire to perceive the value of their purchases worth more than the effort and cost of buying the product. When this perception of service quality is high such customers will often reward organizations with higher levels of loyalty. Research has supported the concept that customer loyalties are based in this service quality (Gefen, 2002).

New technologies have created the age of e-commerce. This technology has developed fundamental differences in the way people interact and conduct business with customers. More importantly, it also changes the way in which individuals perceive customer value, how they obtain information, and the very nature of economic exchange.

Customers are not only making investments in the product but also the company. When a customer spends their time and resources trying to obtain a product or service they are causing customer sacrifice (Brandy et. al., 2005). It is this sacrifice that makes its way into the subjective evaluation of comparative worth.

Through social exchange theory people can better understand the process of comparative exchanges that both companies and customers make. Understanding the online goal directed behavior and exchange of time and effort toward products helps to understand how to provide such services (Zeithaml, et al. 2002). Doing so will better help organizations align their services to the customer’s needs thereby adjusting the perception of this exchange into a more positive one.  

A study conducted by Xu, Benbasat, and Cenfetelli (2011) analyzed service quality, sacrifice, service outcome, and customer loyalty related to products. Participants helped a friend shop for a laptop based upon a number of defined criteria.  A total of 128 subjects with various backgrounds were used within the study to provide diversity of perspective. The researchers desired to define the relationship between online service and purchases of products.

Results:  

-Service quality and customer sacrifice influenced perceived service outcome.

-The effectiveness of service dimensions is influenced by the customers’ product knowledge.

-Support for Social Exchange Theory indicates that if customers feel that their service quality and service outcomes were beneficial they will reciprocate with future purchases and loyalty.

-Customer sacrifice (time and effort) is relative to the quality of the product.

-Customers with high product knowledge are influenced by lower customer sacrifice versus service quality.

-Websites with live help reduces the perceive customer sacrifice factor and raises perceptions of positive quality experience.

Analysis: 

As e-commerce grows as a preferred method of conducting business it is important for organizations to improve their overall understandings associated with customer relationships. Creating higher levels of virtual platforms that foster, versus hinder, customer search preferences can lead to increased sales. In addition, limiting the amount of customer sacrifice required by offering quick methods of communicating with representatives can also raise overall satisfaction levels.  It is through weighing and balancing the use of modern technologies that can we create higher levels of positive customer perception and loyalty.

Author: Dr. Murad Abel

Brady, M., Knight, G., Cronin, J. , Tomas, G., Hult, M., & Keillor, B. (2005). Removing the contextual lens: a multinational, multi-setting comparison of service evaluation models,

Journal of Retailing, 81(3), 215–230.

Gefen, D. (2002). Customer loyalty in e-commerce. Journal of the Association for Information

Systems, 3(1), 27–51.

Zeithaml, V. A., Parasuraman, A., & Malhotra, A. (2002). Service quality delivery through web sites: acritical review of extant knowledge. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30(4),

362–375.

Xu, J., Benbasat, I., & Cenfentelli, R. (2011). The effects of service and customer product knowledge on online customer loyalty. Journal of the Association of the Information Systems, 12 (11).

Book Review: Winning with People by John Maxwell

Winning with others is about understanding both ourselves and other people we live and work with. Before one can truly grasp the needs and desires of another person we must first understand our own needs and desires. It is through this self-reflection that we gain the ability to see other people for who they truly are. We cannot accurately see others until we understand what biases we hold about ourselves that impact our perceptions

The book Winning with People by John Maxwell sheds light on human relationships and how we come to understand and live with each other. On any particular day we associate, negotiate with, and deal with many other people who have their own interests in mind. Some of them are well developed and others are suffering from their own self-perception. 

Before we can understand our place in these social networks we must first understand that the entire population of the world, with the exception of ourselves, is composed of other people. It means that we are only one small piece of a larger pie. It is beneficial to take the perspective of the “other” before trying to force them to the submission of our will. Our way of thinking may not be the only way of thinking....or even the best way.

Conflicts within the workplace are common. They are bound to happen by the sheer fact that we are negotiating for wealth, influence and other resources. However, by caring for other people we have created stronger trusting relationships that supersede the conflict. It isn’t as though conflict is not necessary but that such conflict is done with conscious awareness of the perspective of the other person, their development, and the greater positive outcome. 

When we celebrate and engage with people we find them willing to celebrate and engage with us. There are those in life and at work that have a hard time connecting with anyone. This is due to their perceptual problem with themselves and not necessarily with the group. At other times, it may be the group and not the individual. Seek to look at and develop others and they will seek your development. We all go up or down together through shared experience. 

Of the wisdom that this book offers is a saying of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

Treat a man as he appears to be and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he already were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be. 

The quote is perfect for managers who desire to create higher levels of performance with workers. If a manager treats employees as though they are lazy, uncooperative, and self-interested they will become so. However, if you were to treat a worker s as though they have specific job knowledge, were contributors to organization, and capable of improved performance the worker will do so.  

The book is written at an undergraduate level and the author has put forward a number of important works on social relationships. Even though the book doesn’t state self-fulfilling prophecy it does elude to such a concept. It contains a strong message for students of business in the sense that we create what we see. What we see is based upon our perception of self. This self-perception creates our understanding of the world in which we live. 

Maxwell, C. (2005). Winning with People. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.  ISBN: 978-0-7852-8874-9

Pages:  270

Cost: $12.00

Blog Ranking: 4.1/5

Service Management and Strategic Implementation

Service has an important component to provide within the national economy. Such services enhance the quality of life for many individuals and make their day more effective. The post industrial society is based upon the ability of people to afford and able to use such services effectively. As society progresses from self-sustenance to shared sustenance the complexity of infrastructure and specialized services combine to create an inter-wrapping of networks and structure. 

The development of society and the development of services are on the same trajectory of growth. Society moved from providing extractive services such as agriculture and mining to secondary services such as manufacturing and processing. We are also now offering tertiary services such as restaurants and hotels and have grasped a higher level of governmental, financial and retailing structure. It is possible that we are moving into the quinary age of health, education, research, arts and recreation (Fitzsimons, & Fitzsimons, 2011). 

The appropriate development and delivery of services requires a strategy to make it effective. There should be alignment of the service system delivery, operating strategy, service concept, and target market segments (Sasser & Schlesinger, 1997). Each of these elements creates a function that when working in tandem provides the highest level of value for the customer and the potential highest level of income to the organization. Providing customer value and earning revenue are one in the same.

One of the ways to determine whether or not an organization is in proper alignment with its environment is to conduct a SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis includes the concepts of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Each organization has its own strengths that are unique to that company, has weaknesses that can be improved, opportunities for expansion into the market and threats that can damage its future sustainability. 

Strategy is the ability to take the information from the SWOT analysis, or other form of market scanning, and implement it within the organization. This is the most difficult task of any executive that desires to make an impact. They must make sense out of the information, honestly review their organizations capabilities, and then implement a strategy that impacts the entire chain of functioning throughout the organization. In the end this change should come to an appropriate output which raises sales, reduces expenses and improves revenue.

Fitzsimmons, J. & Fitzsimmons, M. (2011). Service Management: Operations, Strategy, Information Technology (Seventh Edition). NY: McGraw-Hill. 

Sasser, H. & Schlesinger, L. (1997). The service profit chain. NY: The Free Press.