A while back the Blue Monster appeared in the Financial Times when Stormhoek put it on a bottle of wine for geeks. Now it's in BusinessWeek as Doug MacMillan explores the impact of cartoons and doodling on business. Rock on as Hugh would say :)

I spoke with Doug last week and provided answers to some of the common questions I get around Blue Monster - where did it come from, where is it going, did the suits go ape, why haven't you been fired, etc etc.

I've been thinking maybe I should answer some of those questions here too. What do you think?

I'm also asked where is BM going and "has it died" relatively often. The latter question is my favourite as the death or otherwise of Blue Monster is well out of my control and Hugh's. What started out as a fun cartoon turned in to a movement and like any movement it depends on the followers to keep it alive. In the last week I had a few interesting meetings in Redmond where the Blue Monster was brought up by others which says to me it's alive and well on the inside.

The real question for me is this. Why does a one year old cartoon garner interest from BusinessWeek and become the lead in the piece? Maybe the subtitle of Doug's piece holds a clue to the answer.

A simple drawing can communicate complex ideas quickly and almost effortlessly. It can even be the basis of a successful business plan

Off to noodle.

[hugh's post]